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Dairy Execs Face Trial for Melamine Milk

By Dan Flynn and Suzanna Schreck

Three Shanghai Panda Dairy Co. executives faced trial this week for selling dairy products tainted with melamine, an industrial chemical used for economic adulteration which can also cause organ failure.

The executives faced trail in the Fengxian District People's Court. According to local news sources, the court has not handed down a decision yet.

Panda Dairy Co. was also implicated in the shocking 2008 melamine dairy scandal, which killed six infants and sickened over 300,000.

Wang, Hong Qide and Chen Dehua, former managers at the company, allegedly reused returned milk products from the 2008 scandal, even though "they knew some of it contained excessive mealmine and had passed the use-by date," according to Shanghai Daily.

The paper also reported that each defendant shifted blame to the other executives facing trial.

The trial comes after Chinese dairy companies announced this week they were hiring top Australian dairy industry gurus to improve product safety and clean up their reputation.

China Daily also reported this week that a recent study found 10 children sickened in the 2008 scandal are showing signs of kidney damage, and as many as 30,000 children could have health complications from consuming the tainted milk.

According to the study, most children fully recovered but 12 percent of children showed kidney abnormalities six months after ingesting melamine.

Full post as published by Food Safety News on February 27, 2010 (boomark / email).