Chinese leader vows better food safety, business ethics

BEIJING -- Premier Wen Jiabao promised Saturday to improve Chinese food safety, seeking to tamp down public anxiety in the widening scandal over tainted milk that has sickened more than 50,000 children.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in the port of Tianjin, Wen did not announce new initiatives but he said the government would work to instill business ethics in light of the milk contamination and a string of earlier product safety disasters.

"We plan not only to revitalize the food industry and the milk powder industry, we will try to ensure that all China-made products are safe for consumers and consumers can buy with assurance," he said.

Even before the uproar over contaminated milk, China's manufacturing industry had been under intense scrutiny after the industrial chemical melamine and other industrial toxins were found last year in exports ranging from toothpaste to a pet food ingredient.

The milk scandal erupted this month when the public learned that melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizer, had been found in milk powder and was linked to kidney stones in children. Contamination has since turned up in liquid milk, yogurt and other products made with milk.

Four deaths have been blamed on the bad milk and some 54,000 children have developed kidney stones or other illnesses after drinking tainted baby formula.

Authorities say suppliers might have added melamine, which is rich in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to deceive quality tests because the chemical registers as protein.

The incident "has revealed to us that in the process of development, the government should pay more attention to business ethics and social morality," Wen said.

He defended the handling of the crisis by the Beijing government, which has in the past been accused of being reluctant to come clean in situations that could potentially embarrass the communist leadership.

"When this kind of problem of food safety occurs, we do not cover it up," Wen said. "We face it candidly and have taken bold moves to address it. I think this has laid a good foundation for resolving problems."

His comments came a day after the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine sought to reassure people by saying random samples from 296 batches of liquid milk, yogurt and other milk products from 47 brands found none tested positive for melamine.

But authorities in Hong Kong said late Saturday that melamine was detected in Chinese-made milk tablets and in cookies made by Japan's Lotte China Foods Co. On Thursday, Macau's Health Bureau reported that melamine in cookies made by Lotte was 24 times the safe limit.

Earlier in the week, contaminated baby cereal was discovered in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan. Taiwan reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island's first cases possibly linked to the crisis.

Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses the chemical can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.

American welfare group said Saturday that almost a dozen Chinese orphans were among those sickened by the tainted milk.

The children, who live in orphanages around the country, are being treated for kidney stones at hospitals after drinking Sanlu brand powdered milk, the Half the Sky Foundation said on its website.

"All orphanages using identified tainted brands have changed to either fresh milk or to a brand that has been identified as safe," said Jenny Bowen, executive director of the Berkeley, Calif.-based group that provides services, supplies and work crews to 41 Chinese orphanages.

Bowen said the foundation had contacted China's Ministry of Civil Affairs, which is working to provide guidance to institutes that house babies.

A woman who answered the telephone Saturday at the ministry said a letter had been sent a few days ago to local governments urging them to inspect orphanages. She did not have other details and gave only her surname, Zhang, as is common with Chinese officials.