Baby formula made in China is being marketed under brand names registered abroad and many brands are claiming the product is imported, according to a China Central Television program.

Chinese consumers are currently paying high prices for imported formula, confident that it is safer than domestic product after the melamine scandal in 2008. Six babies died and about 3,000 were sickened after consuming melamine-tainted milk powder products.

The CCTV program identified three industry practices - using a foreign milk source and producing abroad; using a foreign milk source but producing the formula in China and producing formula in Chinese factories using milk sourced in China but sold under a brand registered abroad.

That third practice was tantamount to cheating customers, yesterday's program claimed.

An insider told CCTV there were fewer than 100 leading international brands of baby formula and only around 20 had entered the Chinese market. Yet there are over 100 so-called foreign brands available in China.

The program claimed the 80 domestic brands were registered abroad because of high demand for foreign brands and a distrust for product made in China.

Because Chinese customers have more confidence in foreign formula, imported formula now accounts for the majority of the Chinese market. Imported formula has a 75 percent market share in major cities, according to Wang Jinghai, vice director of the China Dairy Association.

CCTV said both large and small domestic formula producers were profiting by setting higher prices because of customers' preference for formula they believed to be manufactured abroad.

One domestic formula producer told the program that a company which had registered a brand abroad had asked it for formula. The producer used its own milk source in China but the packaging on the product said that it was imported.

While Chinese customers may have lost confidence in domestic baby formula, officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said yesterday that domestic product may actually be better.

They announced the results of checks on 25 brands of formula bought in Beijing and other cities. Thirteen were domestic brands, three were domestic products from foreign brands while nine were imported. The tests included checks on nutrient content, minerals and pollutants.

All 16 domestic products, including the three foreign brands, produced in China met standards, while three of the nine imported formulas failed in some respect.

One imported product failed to meet the country's standards for both lactose and calcium-phosphorus ratio, while the other two failed on calcium-phosphorus ratio.

The dairy association said it was important to restore customer confidence in the domestic market.

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