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Heinz stops buying Chinese milk products Article from: Agence France-Presse From correspondents in Washington October 01, 2008 04:44am US food group Heinz says it has decided to stop buying Chinese milk for use in its products in the wake of a giant tainted milk scandal that has left 53,000 children ill. "In order to reassure consumers about the safety of Heinz products, Heinz has made the strategic decision to switch our milk supply in China and Hong Kong to non-Chinese sources and we are testing all dairy ingredients for melamine prior to use in our factories," a spokesman for the...

China milk scandal hits home Chinese had shrugged off previous problems as Western hysteria, but tainted milk has many wondering what else poses a risk. Even professed patriots seek out products not made in China. By Barbara Demick Los Angeles Times Staff Writer September 27, 2008 BEIJING — Even after regulators assured the public that all contaminated baby formula was off the shelves, B.X. Wei wasn't going to feed his 2-month-old son anything that came out of a can. Especially not one made in China. But his wife didn't have enough breast milk for the baby. Then the 30-year-old businessman...

/begin my translation A Puppy in Nanning Got Dozens of Kidney Stones: Contaminated Powered Milk Suspected Ms. Chen, a resident in Nanning, Guangxi Province, has a puppy with repeated serious illness, because, in less than a year, it underwent one surgery after another, taking out kidney stones three times. They numbered a few dozens in total, with varying size. On Sept. 26, this reporter personally saw the kidney stones taken out from the puppy ten days ago. "They are big stones," said Dr. Lian, the vetenarian, while staring at them. At present, Ms. Chen has stopped giving the puppy the...

CHINA'S toxic milk scandal escalated today as one of the nation's famous candy brands was pulled off shelves and four more people outside the mainland were thought to have fallen ill. The industrial chemical melamine has also been found in Heinz baby cereal and in potato crackers in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong and officials ordered a recall of the products. In China, the maker of White Rabbit candy, given to US president Richard Nixon on a landmark 1972 trip, said it was halting domestic sales after its products were found to contain melamine, normally used to make...

Chinese Milk Worker: Complaints Ignored For Years by Louisa Lim Louisa Lim/NPR Whistle-blower Jiang Weisuo, a milk station operator, says chemicals were being added to milk in 2005. His attempts to expose the practice have resulted in huge financial losses and threats on his life, he says. Louisa Lim/NPR Milk collection stations like this one are at the heart of the scandal over contaminated milk. Morning Edition, September 25, 2008 · Milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine has sickened more than 50,000 children in China in recent weeks. But the practice of adulterating milk seems to have started far...

VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman. "PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says. PETA officials say a move to human...

VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman. "PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says. PETA officials say a move to human...

List of Nations Banning Chinese Milk Products Grows By VOA News 25 September 2008 South Korea is the latest nation to ban imports of Chinese dairy products after discovering Chinese-made snacks contained a chemical that has sickened thousands of children who consumed contaminated milk. The Korean Food and Drug Administration, KFDA, says tests on more than 100 products found the chemical melamine in two biscuit-type snacks. Officials ordered the products to be removed from store shelves and destroyed. More than a dozen governments in Asia, Africa and Europe have either banned or recalled Chinese dairy products since the scandal broke...

VERMONT -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman. "PETA's request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow's milk in the food he serves," the statement says. PETA officials say a move to human...

Sanlu claims appalling if true: Fonterra 24th September 2008, 12:03 WST Claims a dairy company knew of China's tainted milk scandal eight months ago and lied about it would be appalling if true, Fonterra chief Andrew Ferrier says. At the release of Fonterra's annual results on Wednesday, Ferrier was swamped by questions about the Chinese dairy company Sanlu, which is 43 per cent owned by Fonterra. So far at least four children have died after drinking powdered milk tainted with the chemical melamine, 54,000 have fallen ill and about 13,000 have been admitted to hospital with kidney problems. A Chinese...

China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources By Sep 20, 2008 - 7:22:49 PM China's Tainted Food Products Only Harm the Average People, High-Ranking Officials Have Their Own Specially-Supplied Food Sources While China's food security crisis has resulted in Chinese people fearing that nothing is safe to eat, a source has revealed that China has always had one special source of food and supply network: that which serves national Communist Party and government officials. This food is specially produced, transported, and examined, according to especially strict standards. On August 18,...

Tainted Milk Powder Scandal: Health Ministry National Internal Teleconference Reveals Top Secret By Translated by chinafreepress.org Sep 21, 2008 - 11:02:23 AM http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/09/200809202358.shtml Tainted Milk Powder Scandal: Health Ministry National Internal Teleconference Reveals Top Secret According to a boxun.com report, on Friday September 19 the Ministry of Health held a national internal teleconference. Every region's large hospital section chiefs and other concerned important officials participated. According to informed sources, this was the second time this month this type of conference was held. The teleconference revealed the true circumstances behind the tainted milk powder scandal. Milk powder factories have been illegally...

Nearly 53,000 children in China have become sick from milk powder contaminated by an industrial chemical, the government has said. A total of 52,857 children had been brought to hospitals after falling ill, a Health Ministry spokesman said. Most had "basically recovered" but 12,892 of them remained hospitalised, he added. The ministry said the toll of children ill from milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine had risen dramatically from the previous figure of 6,244. A further 39,965 children had "received clinical treatment and advice" before being sent home. More than 80 per cent of the sick were aged...

Nearly 13,000 children in China have been hospitalised due to tainted Chinese milk powder, officials say. China's health ministry said 104 out of 12,892 babies showed serious symptoms. Four infants have died after drinking the milk of the Sanlu Group containing the industrial chemical melamine, which could cause urinary problems. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, a toddler has been diagnosed with a kidney stone after drinking the powder - the first such case outside mainland China. A number of Asian and African countries have now banned Chinese dairy imports following the scandal. Chinese police have arrested 18 people in connection with...

China's tainted milk crisis has spilled over the mainland's borders when supplies from international food giants were found to be contaminated with the poisonous additive melamine. Hong Kong authorities said it had found traces of melamine in Nestle's Dairy Farm milk produced for catering use by a company subsidiary in the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao, the site of the Olympics sailing events. Supermarkets in Hong Kong had already pulled Nestle's milk powder from the shelves amid media reports that the territory's government had found a sample that had been tainted. However Nestle released a statement said: ""Following press reports...

(BEIJING) -- In the wake of the contaminated baby milk powder scandal, Chinese quality watchdog on Wednesday cancelled all kinds of national inspection exemptions previously given to food producers. "Considering the particular characteristics of food products and the complexity in the cause of food safety problems, and with a view to further enhancing supervision over food producers, ensuring food safety and protecting consumers' interests," said the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) in an explanation of the move. It said relevant companies must stop activities of publicizing their national inspection exemption qualifications. The national inspection exemption labels...

Starbucks stops serving milk as China crisis snowballs by Fran Wang Fri Sep 19, 4:20 PM ET Starbucks stopped serving drinks with milk in many Chinese outlets Friday as a crisis over poisoned dairy products that have left four babies dead and thousands of others sick spiralled. The move by the US coffee chain came amid a government-ordered mass recall of dairy products after an industrial chemical, initially reported to be only in milk powder, was also detected in regular milk, yoghurt and ice cream. Supermarket shelves across the country were emptied of many products made by Chinese dairy giants...

HK and Seoul act on China baby-milk fears By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai Published: September 18 2008 09:09 | Last updated: September 18 2008 16:45 China’s tainted infant-formula scandal spread to other parts of east Asia on Thursday as food-safety officials in South Korea and Hong Kong said they would investigate or recall Chinese products. The Chinese government, which is scrambling to reduce damage to the image of “Made in China”, announced more arrests in connection with the milk-powder crisis, which claimed its fourth victim on Thursday.

A Swiss gastronomist has stirred a controversy in the tranquil Alpine republic after announcing that he will serve meals cooked with human breast milk. "We have all been raised on it. Why should we not include it into our diet?" Hans Locher, who has become Switzerland most controversial restaurant owner, said.

A scandal over tainted infant formula spread Monday as authorities acknowledged as many as 10,000 babies may have ingested milk powder laced with the same chemical found in contaminated pet-food exports last year that caused scores of U.S. animals to die. Melamine, a chemical in making plastics and fertilizers, has been used by Chinese businesses to boost protein readings in animal feed and other food products. Pet foods containing melamine-laced ingredients traced to China sickened and killed thousands of dogs and cats in the U.S. last year. Many infants who were fed Sanlu milk powder were stricken with kidney stones....

More than 6,200 babies have fallen ill after drinking formula milk made from contaminated powder, Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu has announced. The figure is five times higher than previously announced. Mr Chen said a third baby had now died - with the latest fatality occurring in the Zhejiang province of eastern China. Twenty-two brands of powder were found to contain the toxic industrial chemical melamine, apparently added to make it appear higher in protein. Mr Chen said a total of 6,244 infants were now sick, and that the number of those diagnosed with "acute kidney failure" had risen to...

Probe finds 20 pct of China milk companies in scandal 16 Sep 2008 14:32:23 GMT Source: Reuters (Recasts with results of state investigation) By Ben Blanchard SHIJIAZHUANG, China, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Twenty percent of Chinese dairy firms probed in the wake of a baby milk health scare have been found to have produced melamine-tainted formula, state media reported on Tuesday. Chinese quality officials last week ordered a nationwide probe into all baby milk powders after it was reported that dozens of children had developed kidney stones after drinking tainted formula produced by the Sanlu Group. Two infants have since...

More than 1,200 infants sick in China tainted milk scandal BEIJING, Sept. 15 KYODO More than 1,200 infants are now known to have been made sick after they were fed milk powder at the center of a food contamination scandal in China, the government said Monday. Some 1,253 infants have developed kidney stones after drinking milk formula sold by the dairy firm Sanlu, which contained the chemical melamine, the Health Ministry said in a statement. Two of the infants from the northern province of Gansu have died. The Health Ministry said 340 children are in hospital and 53 of the...

An EU-funded project coordinated by Uppsala University in Sweden will study the origins and significance of lactose tolerance in Europe. The project, called LECHE ('Lactase persistence and the early cultural history of Europe'), is a training network with 13 participating universities in Europe... Approximately 85% of adult northern Europeans are able to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products; however, in the rest of the world the ability to digest milk drops off sharply after infancy. In fact, as one moves south from Scandinavia, lactose tolerance in adulthood drops off. The persistence of lactase (the enzyme...

Everybody knows the saying that there’s no use crying over spilled milk. But what about fighting over spoiled milk? Last week, a southwest Atlanta grocery store owner and a customer got arrested after a confrontatiion turned physical when the woman tried to get a refund for spoiled milk, according to an Atlanta police report.

If you are concerned about the growing intrusiveness of regulators into our private lives, then you may want to read about Robin Countryman-Velk and her Kiddin’ Korral Animal and Activities project in the Napa, California, area. Kiddin’ Korral is part of a 1,400-acre dude ranch that is owned and operated by some 1,400 owners (the acreage is not divided). The owners have an association with a board of directors that oversees the operations. The owners can use the place any time they want—it has 100 cabins, 200 campsites, a couple of large pools and, for the last two years, the...

Baby Milk Recommendations Changed 2% Milk OK for Weaned Babies at Risk of Becoming Overweight By Daniel J. DeNoon WebMD Health NewsReviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MDJuly 11, 2008 -- There's been a major change in baby nutrition advice, but it's gone nearly unnoticed. This week, the American Academy of Pediatrics changed its recommendation that weaned babies be fed whole milk until they're 2 years old.

Link to videoHas anyone tried one of these? I have not, but they look kinda neat.

Over the past 20 years, Wisconsin-based Organic Valley has grown into the nation's largest organic cooperative, carving out a niche selling milk from small dairy farmers who treat their cows like members of the family. So imagine the shock within the organic food world when an industry watchdog group recently discovered Organic Valley quietly has been getting some of its milk from a giant Texas dairying operation with more than 5,000 cows. "Buying milk from this factory farm could potentially be catastrophic to our marketplace reputation," said Darlene Coehoorn, a longtime Organic Valley member from Rosendale, Wis., where she milks...

New research links drinking lowfat milk to lower risk for heart disease Grabbing as little as one glass of lowfat or fat free milk could help protect your heart, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Researchers found that adults who had at least one serving of lowfat milk or milk products each day had 37 percent lower odds of poor kidney function linked to heart disease compared to those who drank little or no lowfat milk. To determine heart disease risk, researchers from several universities in the United States and Norway measured the...

A Pennsylvania farmer has been fined $4,000 for dealing in raw milk in violation of the state's bureaucracy that demands he hold a permit in order to sell his natural products to friends and neighbors. A rally protesting the governmental action against Mt. Holly Springs, Pa., farmer Mark Nolt drew more than 100 people today outside the courthouse where a magistrate threw out one count filed against him, but pronounced a guilty decision and $1,000 fine on each of four other counts. WND reported earlier on the SWAT team-like raid on Nolt's farm, the government's confiscation of tens of thousands...

Transmitting Prion Diseases In Milk ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — Scrapie can be transmitted to lambs through milk, according to new research. The study provides important information on the transmission of this prion-associated disease and the control of scrapie in affected flocks. Scrapie is a fatal neurodegenerative disease of sheep and goats. Clinical signs include itchiness, head tremor, wool loss and skin lesions as well as changes in behaviour and gait. Timm Konold and colleagues from the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, UK, investigated the transmission of scrapie by feeding milk from scrapie-affected ewes to lambs that are genetically susceptible...

Bill of the Week- Harvey Milk Day (Leno) Last week Assemblyman Mark Leno and homosexual advocacy group Equality California (the organization that sponsored SB 777) announced that the assemblyman would introduce and carry a new bill that will establish a state holiday honoring Harvey Milk. Most citizens have no idea who Mr. Milk is or why he deserves a special state-recognized holiday. For some, Harvey Milk is considered a "civil rights" leader for his work in advancing homosexual "rights" in California. A resident of the infamous Castro district in San Francisco, Milk was one of the first homosexual elected officials...

No one can accuse the fine public servants of California’s Department of Food and Agriculture of sitting on their hands, and letting raw milk coliforms threaten the health and safety of California consumers. No, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The junior he-men, working on behalf of the senior he-man-terminator, are out there…fighting the common enemy, raw milk coliforms.

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez threatened on Sunday to take over farms or milk plants if owners refuse to sell their milk for domestic consumption and instead seek higher profits abroad or from cheese-makers.< >"I'm putting you on alert," Chavez said. "If there's a producer that refuses to sell the product ... and sells it at a higher price abroad ... ministers, find me the proof so it can be expropriated."< >"We're going to turn Venezuela into a food-producing power," said Chavez, who says he is leading Venezuela toward "21st century socialism."< >

I’ve mentioned the FDA presentation before, but I think of it now because of a major case of illness from milk contamination in Massachusetts—contamination from pasteurized milk. It’s received extensive coverage in today’s Boston Globe, and apparently triggered dozens of calls to state health authorities by concerned consumers. According to the reports, three elderly individuals were sickened by listeriosis, and two of them died. A fourth individual—a pregnant woman in her thirties—had a miscarriage. If you are a raw milk drinker and you have been following some of the cases of alleged listeria contamination of raw milk in New York...

Barbara and Steve Smith had bad news and good news on the legal front in their suit against officials of New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets yesterday. The bad news was that their lawyers were rejected in their effort to obtain a temporary restraining order, which would have had the effect of immediately ending the ongoing harassment at the Meadowsweet Farm in Lodi. The good news...

The struggle of Barbara and Steve Smith of Meadowsweet Farm against the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets is beginning to resemble the battle of the Alamo. Every few days, it seems, the ag lackeys mount another assault against the revolutionaries, stronger than the one preceding, and each time they are driven off. But as with the battle of the Alamo, you know that eventually the side with the overwhelming force will win…unless the cavalry can arrive in time with reinforcements.

Some of the nation's largest retailers and grocery chains sold milk labeled "organic" that was not truly organic, recently filed lawsuits allege. The federal complaints focus on the sale of milk from Boulder, Colo.-based Aurora Organic Dairy, which recently agreed to change its practices after the U.S. Department of Agriculture found more than a dozen violations of organic standards. The lawsuits allege that Costco Wholesale Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., Safeway Inc. and Wild Oats Markets Inc. sold Aurora's milk under their own in-house brand names. The brands include Costco's Kirkland and Target's Archer Farms, and the milk was...

This is one of the many Dairy sections from the Farm bill that just passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority, as usual politicians playing fast and loose with OUR money. S.2302 Food and Energy Security Act of 2007 SEC. 1601. DAIRY PRODUCT PRICE SUPPORT PROGRAM. (a) Support Activities- During the period beginning on January 1, 2008, and ending on December 31, 2012, the Secretary shall support the price of cheddar cheese, butter, and nonfat dry milk through the purchase of such products made from milk produced in the United States. (b) Purchase Price- To carry out subsection (a), the...

Most government enforcers assume a low profile after they’re sued, at least for a while. Not New York’s Department of Agriculture and Markets. Within hours of being sued by Barbara and Steve Smith, and members of Meadowsweet Farm’s Limited Liability Company (as described in a posting here earlier this week), two agents showed up at the farm in Lodi, apparently looking for trouble. They found it, in the form of the Smiths, who knew exactly what the agents were entitled to, and not entitled to, and whom to call when the agents wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. I’ll let...

During another typically bizarre day for Heather Mills, the former model yesterday urged people to try drinking milk from rats and dogs to help save the planet. Media-shy Heather started off by storming out of a radio interview with London's LBC station. She then drove a gas-guzzling Mercedes 4x4 to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park to speak about ecological matters - and kept the engine running for part of the morning. Once there she proceeded to launch into an extraordinary ecological rant and exhorted the assembled crowds to try drinking rat's milk instead of cow's milk in a bid to...

WASHINGTON - Too little milk, sunshine and exercise: It's an anti-bone trifecta. And for some kids, shockingly, it's leading to rickets, the soft-bone scourge of the 19th century. But cases of full-blown rickets are just the red flag: Bone specialists say possibly millions of seemingly healthy children aren't building as much strong bone as they should — a gap that may leave them more vulnerable to bone-cracking osteoporosis later in life than their grandparents are. "This potentially is a time-bomb," says Dr. Laura Tosi, bone health chief at Children's National Medical Center in Washington. Now scientists are taking the first...

HAMILTON, New Zealand: After years of saving, Geoff Irwin finally scraped up enough money to buy his parents' dairy farm near here in 2003. Now his parents have retired to a house nearby and Irwin, 45, runs the farm with its 300 cows. It is hard work, 12 hours a day, but already it looks as though it has paid off: Just four years later, the farm is worth more than twice what he paid for it. Prices for dairy farms in New Zealand are soaring along with dairy incomes, thanks to a global milk boom. "It feels really good,"...

During a 2004 Summer Olympics awash in controversies over steroids and supplements, one sportswriter wryly noticed that top American swimmer Michael Phelps was playing it safe -- he preferred to drink Carnation Instant Breakfast between races. Now it appears that the six-time gold medalist may have been onto something. A new study shows that plain old chocolate milk may be as good -- or better -- than sports drinks like Gatorade at helping athletes recover from strenuous exercise. The study, published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, was small in scale; it was partially funded by...

Yesterday (Monday) Andrea received a call from an inspector with the New York Department of Food and Markets in Albany that he planned to come by the farm for a special inspection, based on “a complaint” made to the department’s Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services. Andrea couldn’t imagine who might have complained, and what the complaint might have been about.

Californians’ easy access to raw milk—it’s available in 350 health food stores and 40 Whole Foods grocery stores around the state—has been placed in serious jeopardy by a few words about a bacteria standard included in Assembly Bill 1735, a piece of agriculture legislation signed into law a couple weeks ago by Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneger, and due to take effect January 1. Also in jeopardy is the mini-empire built up by Mark McAfee, owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., the dairy that supplies about 95% of the state’s unpasteurized milk, consumed by more than 100,000 Californians each week. Mark has...

When agriculture inspectors come calling at 7 on a Saturday evening, watch out. That's what Barbara and Steve Smith learned last Saturday evening.

One of the real positive things legislatures can do is gather together representatives of opposing sides of an issue to openly discuss it via hearings. This kind of discussion can help clarify the points of disagreement, and agreement, and help in education... It was in the testimony from the two public health officials that I got an education...in how to distort and misrepresent the facts.

Source: University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Date: September 15, 2007 Mother's Milk A Gift That Keeps On Giving Science Daily — Extensive medical research shows that mothers' milk satisfies babies' nutritional needs far better than any manufactured infant formula. It also protects babies against many common infectious diseases and certain inflammatory diseases, and probably helps lower the risk of a child later developing diabetes, lymphoma and some types of leukemia. These conclusions appear in a major new review of the medical literature published this month entitled "Benefits and Risks of Breastfeeding." The article, published in the current issue...