The scandal of tainted dairy products in China has widened, with liquid milk now found to be contaminated.
Inspectors found that 10% of liquid milk taken from three dairies was tainted with melamine.
The scandal first came to light in milk powder that killed four infants and sickened more than 6,000 others.
Suppliers are believed to have added melamine, a banned chemical normally used in plastics, to diluted milk to make it appear higher in protein.
Public trust
China’s quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, tested liquid milk from three dairies.
Baby treated in China
Parent’s anger over milk scandal
Its website said 10% of the milk from the country’s two largest – Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group – contained up to 8.4 milligrams of melamine per kg.
Products from Shanghai-based Bright Dairy were also contaminated, it said.
The watchdog said it would “strictly find out the reason for adding the melamine and severely punish those who are responsible”.
All the batches that tested positive were being recalled, it said.
However, officials insisted most milk was safe to drink – in an attempt to rebuild public trust in dairy products.
The BBC’s James Reynolds in Beijing says it is not being suggested that anyone has fallen ill from drinking milk contaminated with melamine.
But he says people are extremely angry to learn that more and more products have been found to be unsafe.
Arrests
The scandal broke last week after the Sanlu Group said it had sold melamine-laced milk powder.
Of those children made sick, more than 150 are said to have acute kidney failure.
Chinese police have arrested 18 people in connection with the scandal.
Twelve were arrested in the province of Hebei on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in the supply of tainted milk.
Hebei is home to the headquarters of Sanlu.
The State Council – China’s cabinet – has held a meeting to discuss the issue.
China’s official news agency Xinhua says that the council has decided to reform the dairy industry.
It says that the tainted milk powder incident “reflected chaotic industry conditions, as well as loopholes in the supervision and management of the industry”.
On Thursday, Hong Kong recalled dairy products made by the Yili group after tests found milk, ice-cream and yogurt contaminated with melamine.
China’s ability to police its food production industries has long been under question.
Health scares and fatalities in recent years have ranged from the contamination of seafood to toothpaste and, last year, to pet food exported to the US.
