IN THE latest food safety scandal to rattle the nerves of Chinese consumers, the health ministry said it had found no evidence that contaminated milk powder for babies caused three infant girls to grow breasts.
Tainted milk powder killed six children and sickened hundreds of thousands soon after the Olympics in 2008. The scandal caused widespread anger in China at poor safety standards and quality assurance. Measures have been introduced since to tighten up standards, but health scares remain big news in China.
Earlier this month, parents and doctors in the central province of Hubei said they were concerned that milk powder produced by Synutra International, which is listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, had caused at least three infant girls to develop prematurely.
Health experts tested products made by Synutra as well as 20 other brands across the country to compare the level of oestrogen in dairy products. The investigation was focused on three cases in Wuhan, an industrial city in the heart of China, and six cases in five other provinces.
Health ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said the probe found the hormone content of the milk powder was within normal standards.
“The ministry of health experts’ group believes that there is no relationship between the premature development of breasts in the three infants in Hubei and Synutra milk powder,” he said.
Medical researcher Prof Wu Xueyan, from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital, said that the premature appearance of breasts was likely due to the early onset of puberty.
“We suggest keeping an eye on these infants to see whether or not there are further developments,” Dr Wu told the Xinhua news agency. The early appearance of breasts was a common clinical condition, he said, and there had been no notable rise across the country in premature development of breasts in children.
Even though the ministry says it found no evidence of tainted milk, the case has acted as a reminder about how safety concerns remain among Chinese consumers about domestically produced food products. The 2008 scandal badly undermined China’s global image as a producer.
Maintaining standards has proven difficult. In July, health authorities seized 64 tonnes of milk powder laced with melamine, which was the deadly additive at the centre of the 2008 health scare. The reaction among consumers online was sceptical.
The investigation was carried out by some of the country’s top researchers. Shao Bing, a researcher with the Beijing Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said experts with different medical institutes jointly tested more than 70 samples of milk powder products.
Dr Wu said the premature development of the three infant girls was most likely an example of “minimal puberty”. “Minimal puberty as a natural result of hormone secretion would make infants develop prematurely,” Dr Wu said. Girls under two years who are sensitive to hormone secretion could grow breasts, he said.