Chinese milk a cocktail of pullutants

13-10-2008 | Not Specified

The melamine- tainted milk scandal is forcing the Chinese government to address the deep-seated problems plaguing its dairy sector.

But was it naïve of Fonterra to invest, in the way it did, in such an unscrupulous industry?

Jamil Anderlini, a New Zealand journalist reporting on business in China for the Financial Times, told The New Zealand Farmers Weekly he remembers feeling uneasy at the ceremony where Fonterra announced its $153 million investment in Sanlu.

"I've been to a lot of Chinese milk operations and I've seen how they work.

"I remember thinking Fonterra was a little bit out of its depth and didn't quite know what it was getting into at the time."

Media commentators say Fonterra should have learned from mistakes made by previous overseas investors and built their own business from
scratch rather than trying to engage with Chinese partners.

Fonterra has an 85% stake in a 3000-cow dairy feedlot in China (15% Sanlu), two hours from Beijing. A Fonterra spokesperson says the farm in China is continuing to operate as normal and the company had made arrangements with a local processor to take the milk.

" We have been testing the milk from our farm and we are very confident that milk leaving our farm is not contaminated."

Certainly the scandal is throwing the spotlight on the Chinese dairy industry and it is not a pretty picture.

Asian newspapers are reporting that diluting milk with water is common practice and agents at milk collection stations have developed innovative ways to make up the nutritional content of milk.

A former owner of a small dairying company
in China reportedly never drinks milk and his colleague, who provides technical support to dairy farmers, says he wouldn't know what milk to
drink.

It is supposedly well know that the reason milk from mainland China has found favour with consumers in Hong Kong is because of its strong flavour and its thick texture, thanks to artificial additives.

Most consumers in China and Hong Kong have little idea of the cocktail of additives that are being added to their milk and milk products.

It is neither the farmers nor large processors
that are adding chemicals to raw milk, but the agents who collect milk from farms and sell it the dairy giants.

Sources say dairy companies are not entirely without blame as it is only the agents with links to dairy company staff that survive in the industry.

It is the structure of the industry that is being blamed for the melamine scandal because of the
gap between supply and the enormous demand for milk.

There are more than two million dairy farmers in China milking 14.3 million cows, with most farmers keeping just a few cows in a shed in their
backyard.

Cows are often not fed or housed properly and it is reported most cows have some sort of illness, therefore they are poor producers.

Most dairy cows in these small operations fail to produce milk that meets bacterial count and quality standards.

Milk in China contains 10,000-000,000s of bacterial units per tonne of raw milk, which causes the milk to go off during delivery.

To try and preserve this milk for longer preservatives such as hydrogen peroxide are commonly added by milk agents before it is delivered to the processors.

Because the milk is poor quality, additives such as protein powder, industrial oil and whey powder are often added in order to boost its nutritional value. Melamine is mixed as a powder.

It is reported antibiotic-tainted milk is widespread. Because the cows are often sick, antibiotics are used widely, and while this milk is usually fed to calves, in times of milk shortages it will be sold to milk factories.

Consultant David Oliver is not surprised the melamine scandal is so widespread and he thinks the whole issue of food safety will come under the spotlight. He expects other types of foods will be found to have been adulterated or contain illegal additives.

It is reported that melamine has been added to milk as far back as 2005, but the amounts used in this recent scandal were unusually high and this has caused the deaths of four children and the illness of over 50,000 children.

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