At least it's not lead

China seems to have gotten the memo on coating things in lead, but apparently has missed the point on substituting cheap poison for actual ingredients in things like baby formula. [Link]

China on Saturday sought to calm public anxiety about a nationwide milk safety scandal as officials ordered the removal of all tainted supplies from stores, promised more scrutiny of dairy producers and issued warnings against price gouging. Meanwhile, President Hu Jintao scolded local officials as failing to safeguard the public interest.

The broad response underscores how deeply the dairy crisis has resonated with the Chinese public as well as the political problem the scandal has presented for the government, which only last year promised to revamp the country’s food and drug regulatory system after a string of controversies.

The scandal was initially limited to contaminated baby formula, which has killed four infants and sickened more than 6,200 others. Inspectors have discovered that 22 dairy companies produced batches of formula tainted with melamine, an industrial additive used to make fertilizers and plastics. In recent days, traces of melamine have also been discovered in some batches of liquid milk and in a frozen yogurt bar in Hong Kong.

The dairy sections of many grocery stores in major cities are now mostly empty from recalls. Consumers are rushing to buy foreign brands of boxed milk. Also, Starbucks franchises in China have switched to soy milk.

The Chinese news media have publicized brands of milk that have been tainted, a list that includes the country’s biggest dairy companies. Nearly 10 percent of the milk tested from two leading brands — Mengniu and Yili — revealed traces of melamine.

For days, parents have crowded into hospitals around the country to have their infants tested for the kidney problems that have occurred in babies who drank the contaminated milk over a sustained period.