A scandal that shocked the Chinese public and caused recalls on instant coffee in this country finally comes to an uneasy close

Two men have been given the death penalty and one woman has been given a life sentence in connection with tainted dairy products that cost six infants their lives and sickened another 300,000. A Chinese court in Shijiazhuang, a city in the Hebei province, delivered the sentences yesterday.

The swift trial was the result of a commitment by Beijing officials to take control of China’s food safety issues. The communist government found themselves embarrassed late last year when exports, including a brand of instant coffee found here in the US, began to show traces of melamine, a toxic substance known to cause kidney failure.

The same substance was found in baby formula sold domestically within China by a company called Sanlu Group Co. With babies dying of kidney failure and more suffering from kidney stones, public shock turned to resentment and anger as word of a cover-up within the company that produced the formula spread.

Tian Wenhua, a dairy boss from Sanlu Group Co. who has been sentenced to life in prison, admitted she knew that melamine was being used as an additive in watered-down milk to fool inspectors. It is believed that middlemen who sold companies like Sanlu raw milk were lacing their products with melamine to give the milk the appearance of a higher protein content.

Parents and grandparents of the children killed and hurt in the wake of this scandal gathered in front of the courthouse yesterday as the conviction was given. Liu Donglin, whose 21-month old son suffered from kidney stones caused by melamine, said he would push to get the government to continue to study the toxin’s long term health effects and to gain compensation for other children who were also affected.

“We’ll keep pushing for one year, two years, three years, even 20 years until our children get what they deserve,” Donglin said.

An acceptable measure of safety

These convictions mark the end of a scandal we’ve been following on this site since September. Here in the US, the Food and Drug Administration recalled packages of Mr. Brown Instant Coffee that were found to have unacceptable levels of melamine. Other recalls included popular brands such as HJ Heinz baby food, Snickers, Dove Chocolate, Cadbury candy, and M&M candies.

Those words “unacceptable levels” sparked questioning here in the US of the FDA’s willingness to leave so-called acceptable levels of melamine in products sold within our borders. According to the FDA, 2.5 parts per million of melamine can be found in food and beverages without causing bodily harm. Some countries have banned the substance outright.

In China, Starbucks began serving soy milk with all of their coffees as precautionary measure. As the largest coffee chain in the nation, the Seattle company took quick action to safeguard customers from possible illness.

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