Mizzima News

New Delhi – Amid a growing number of babies falling ill in China, the country's Foreign Ministry on Thursday acknowledged that Chinese companies have exported tainted milk powder to five developing countries, including Burma.

During a press briefing on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu said Yemen, Bangladesh, Burma, Gabon and Burundi have imported milk powder made by two Chinese firms whose products have since been found to be contaminated.

But the spokesperson said there have been no problems reported so far from these countries, even as a third baby died and over 6,200 children have fallen sick in China from the tainted milk powder.

In Burma, a country ruled by military for over four decades, state-run newspapers have thus far not issued any warning to consumers to avoid milk powder from neighboring China, but critics believe the tainted milk has already penetrated Burma's food market.

With Burma sharing a porous border with China, and having its busiest border trading point along the Sino-Burmese border, observers said the tainted milk powder would have likely entered the country.

A manager of a New Zealand company, Red Horse Industrial Group, which produces 'Pep Milk Powder,' said Chinese made milk powder is a favorite choice of many Burmese people as it is cheap compared to others.

Tun Tun, the Red Horse Industrial group's brand manager in Rangoon, said that while he is so far unaware of any particular brand of Chinese milk powder that has caused sickness to babies, the Burmese peoples' use of milk powder in general is dangerous for young babies.

"For young babies up to the age of six months or even a year, parents should go for specific milk powders because these infants, if fed with a general milk powder, could develop stomach problems due to indigestion," Tun Tun explained.

The Chinese government, meanwhile, said it is working hard to address the issue and has ordered the closure of at least 22 dairy companies whose products are reported to contain the chemical melamine.

According to a Reuters report, Bangladesh's Standard and Testing Institute is collecting samples of milk imported from China and is sending it for laboratory tests.

"We are really worried (over the reported contamination of imported milk) like others and are serious to deal with the issue," Reuters quoted the institute's director Lutfor Rahman as saying.

Similarly, South Korea's Food and Drug Administration said it was also testing products made with powdered milk from China, and are expecting the results next week.

However in Burma, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Ministry of Health, when contacted by Mizzima, failed to provide any information regarding the import of Chinese milk powder and its efforts to test products for contamination.

A data entry operator at the FDA office in Rangoon told Mizzima that she has no knowledge on the subject, while no officials were available to provide information, all of them said to be on leave.

Meanwhile, a businesswoman selling Chinese made milk powder told Mizzima that Burmese consumers continue to buy the milk powder and that there has been no drastic decline in her sales of Chinese made milk powder.

Critics, however, believe the Burmese population is largely unaware of the ongoing milk scandal in neighboring China as well as the consequences of consuming contaminated milk powder.