The EU wants an explanation about a widening Chinese dairy scandal that has made thousands of infants ill, an official said yesterday, as global café giant Starbucks pulled some milk from its Chinese stores.

Fears that the scandal was much bigger than first thought appeared to be well-founded when a government quality watchdog said nearly 10 per cent of milk samples from three major dairies were found to be contaminated with potentially deadly melamine.

Thousands of panicked parents have crowded hospitals and demanded explanations from the Chinese government since officials and the Sanlu Group, China's biggest maker of infant milk powder, said last week that babies were sick with kidney stones and complications after drinking toxic milk powder.

At the latest count, 6,244 children have become ill. Four have died and 158 are suffering "acute kidney failure".

Quality officials stressed that most Chinese milk was safe, trying to shore up public trust already shaken by a litany of food scares involving eggs, pork and seafood in recent years.

Robert Madelin, director-general for health and consumer protection at the European Commission, said the EU did not import Chinese infant milk powder, and there had been no reports of health problems in the bloc from other Chinese dairy products.

But with foreign consumers watching China again grapple with toxic food and claims of delays and cover-ups, Mr Madelin told reporters in Beijing he expected an account of what went wrong.

"We are trying to establish the facts. We are discussing all aspects of this crisis bilaterally with our colleagues in China," Mr Madelin said.

"On the governance aspects, we are also asking questions, and we will learn the truth probably about the same time you do." After a nationwide check, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine blamed two of China's top dairy producers, the Xinhua news agency has reported.

Almost one-tenth of liquid milk batches from Mengniu Dairy and Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co. Ltd contained melamine, which is banned in food.

Several samples of milk from the Bright dairy group also had the substance, used in making plastics, the agency found.

The chemical compound melamine is rich in nitrogen, an element often used to measure protein levels. By adding melamine to diluted milk, dealers can fool quality checks. Starbucks Corp. said its 300-plus cafés in mainland China had pulled milk supplied by Mengniu. Starbucks said no employees or customers had fallen ill from the milk.

Yili, a Beijing Olympic Games sponsor, already faced a recall in Hong Kong, where authorities found eight of its 30 products, including ice cream and yoghurt ice bars, contained melamine.

In Singapore, the government food watchdog advised retailers to pull Yili yoghurt ice bars from their shelves.

Chinese media have largely kept quiet about claims that Sanlu and officials in Shijiazhuang, where the company is based, concealed the poisonings from the public and senior authorities during the Beijing Olympics in August.

The Chinese quality watchdog also said melamine-tainted milk would not make adults sick unless they drank more than two litres a day. But consumers sounded far from reassured.

"I'm pretty worried. In the future I will certainly trust the milk industry less," said Zhang Xi, a 25-year-old engineer, sitting at a Starbucks outlet in Beijing.

China launched reforms to clean up food and product safety after a wave of scandals last year, including melamine found in pet food ingredients sent to the US.

Now it is again vowing to punish errant businesses and officials and there have already been dismissals, detentions and arrests linked to Sanlu, 43 per cent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday that Chinese officials acted last week only after her government pressed Beijing.

China's dairy industry will need more than a blitz of inspections and detentions to cure it, said Guan Anping, a former trade official and now a lawyer who has dealt with the industry.

"Scattered milk farmers have been at the mercy of milk thugs, local strongmen who control prices and get away with putting all sorts of things in milk to maximise their profits," Mr Guan said.

Police seized 222 kg of melamine and arrested 12 people on Thursday, bringing the total detained in the scandal to 18.

Scam highlights risks, raises questions

Why add melamine to milk powder?

Melamine is a toxic industrial chemical rich in nitrogen, which can make watered-down milk's protein level appear higher.

What are melamine's health effects?

Little scientific information exists about its effects on humans. But four infants have died in China, and hundreds of children have been diagnosed with kidney stones after drinking the contaminated milk.

Melamine was linked to the deaths of cats and dogs in the United States last year.

Which countries are affected?

Supplies have been pulled across China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong, yoghurt, ice cream and milk powder have been recalled.

Yemen, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Gabon and Burundi: All imported milk powder from two Chinese firms named as sources of the tainted milk.

Which companies are implicated?

22 Chinese companies have been listed as producers of the tainted milk powder.

Are international companies affected?

Coffee chain Starbucks fears it may have taken contaminated milk from supplier Mengniu Dairy. It has pulled the company's milk from its 300-plus cafés in mainland China.

Dairy giant Fonterra, the New Zealand business partner of Sanlu Group, China's top seller of infant milk powder, has not said how the scandal may affect relations with the company it has a 43 per cent stake in. Neither has Danish-Swedish dairy cooperative Arla, whose Chinese joint venture Mengniu Arla's baby formula is also implicated.

How was the alarm raised?

Sanlu Group was the first company to reveal it had produced and sold melamine-laced milk.

On September 15, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Fonterra had pressured Chinese officials to raise the alarm after learning of the problem in August.

Why didn't quality testing pick up the toxin?

Sanlu and at least six other companies on the list of 22 contaminated milk producers had been exempted from national quality checks. They were awarded "inspection-free" status as high quality brands trusted to conduct their own quality checks.

Have there been similar cases?

Other dangerous ingredients, such as lead or cancer-causing dyes, have been added to everyday products by people in China who may or may not know of their toxic effects, but think their addition will save money and boost sales.

Why is product safety a recurring problem?

Cost-cutting by local suppliers in a competitive market, coupled with inadequate product safety supervision and corruption in the national regulatory environment.

China's largely muzzled, compliant media also reduces the likelihood of problems coming to light as quickly as they might in countries where whistle-blowers see the press as independent.

What risks does the scandal pose for the government?

The worst-case economic scenario, an export ban on China's dairy or other products, is unlikely.

However, China has said its growing dairy industry is chaotic. The description, an admission of the country's inability to safeguard its unsettled public and investors from serious, life-threatening, quality issues, does not help inspire confidence in the "Made in China" brand or official regulations.

Coming after a successful Olympics where a sparkling "new China" dazzled the world, the scandal is terrible PR, undercutting the still-modernising country's attempts to establish itself as a transparent and trustworthy global player.

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