China: Dairy company recalls tainted milk cartons
A bottle of milk is pictured on a table in London on August 2, 2010. Food safety officials in Britain will investigate a claim that milk from the offspring of a cloned cow was on sale for public consumption, they said Monday.
China's dairy industry has suffered another blow, with the Bright Dairy & Food company recalling hundreds of cartons of milk tainted with detergent, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The move came after customers began complaining online of discolored, foul smelling liquid in the company's Ubest brand of milk.
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The Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision said it discovered the detergent in the milk during an inspection on Monday at one of Bright Dairy's Shanghai factories – adding the case was being investigated.
A recall notice on the company's website said a mechanical delay at the factory during routine maintenance had allowed a small amount of "alkaline cleaning solution" to be added to 300 cartons of milk, Reuters reported.
"We deeply apologize for any impact this has had on our customers. From today on, we will strictly strengthen relevant management procedures," the notice said.
According to The Wall Street Journal, shares in Bright Dairy, which is known as Guangming in Chinese, recovered after falling in early trade.
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The detergent incident comes weeks after the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group recalled six months' worth of infant formula products that had been contaminated by mercury.
In 2008, at least six Chinese children died and a further 300,000 fell ill after drinking milk and infant formula laced with the industrial chemical melamine.
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