Report of Tainted Eggs In China Was Delayed

RDX : 我还是别回国了

HONG KONG -- As Hong Kong and mainland Chinese officials disclose new instances of an industrial contaminant in eggs from China, local mainland officials said they were aware that locally produced eggs were tainted one month before the findings were publicized.


Melamine Found in Chinese Eggs
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Melamine turns up in Chinese chicken eggs in Hong Kong just a month after the chemical was found in milk formula, killing four children. Video courtesy of Reuters. (Oct. 28)
The one-month lag between the discovery and disclosure of the presence of melamine -- the same chemical involved in China's tainted baby-formula scandal -- raises questions about the reporting of food problems by Chinese companies and authorities to consumers and regulators outside the mainland. Melamine was blamed for the deaths of at least four infants and for sickening thousands more, leading to recalls and a revamp of the nation's dairy industry.

Officials in Hong Kong and mainland China said Wednesday that tests showed melamine in two more brands of mainland eggs, suggesting a broader presence of melamine in the food supply. Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety late Wednesday said an egg sample taken from a city wholesale food market contained 3.1 parts per million of melamine, above its 2.5 ppm limit. It said it asked mainland authorities to stop the producer from exporting more eggs to Hong Kong.

The eggs were sourced from Jingzhou Shuanggang Poultry Breeding & Processing Co. in central China, it said. A man who answered the phone at the company said he was unaware of a problem and didn't give additional information.


Meanwhile, the eastern mainland city of Hangzhou recalled tainted eggs produced by the Green Living Beings Development Center in the northern province of Shanxi, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Green Living couldn't be reached to comment.

Late Tuesday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it pulled eggs sold under the Gegada brand from its stores in mainland China. The eggs were produced by Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, a third source of eggs found over the weekend by Hong Kong officials to contain melamine. A Wal-Mart China spokeswoman said Wednesday that the retailer hadn't yet taken other brands of eggs off the shelves.

Separately, Hong Kong officials late Tuesday said that a batch of eggs served in a local restaurant and imported from mainland China contained melamine in excess of the territory's food safety standards. According to Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety, the sample from the restaurant contained 2.9 ppm of melamine, more than the legal limit.

The eggs were produced by a fourth source, Hubei Jingshan Pengchang Agricultural Products Co. in central China. Pan Fengxia, the owner of the company, said she didn't know how melamine wound up in the eggs.

Experts say the most likely source of melamine in eggs is chicken feed. Melamine, used to make plastics and fertilizer, may have been added to animal feed by suppliers in order to make it appear more protein-rich -- the same reason it was added to watered-down milk.

On Saturday, Hong Kong said that a batch of eggs produced by Hanwei had tested positive for melamine in concentrations of 4.7 ppm. Hanwei couldn't be reached to comment on Wednesday, though it had issued a public apology.

The city government of Dalian first learned of melamine in Hanwei's eggs on Sept. 27, a spokeswoman for its municipal foreign-affairs office said. Dalian authorities said that they acted immediately to halt the distribution of melamine-tainted eggs by suspending Hanwei's egg exports, ordering the company to recall its products, and impounding seven cargo containers of eggs en route to Hong Kong and two containers that had already arrived there.

A spokeswoman for ParknShop, the Hong Kong supermarket chain that sold Hanwei eggs under the store's Select brand, said, "We have not been informed by Hanwei regarding the eggs contaminated with melamine." It said Hanwei sent a letter Sept. 25 recalling some eggs, but cited rain damage. The chain is owned by conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd.

The Dalian spokeswoman said the case was reported to higher-level authorities, without elaborating further. The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the central-government body responsible for product safety, didn't respond to a request to comment. The administration's Web site didn't contain any statement regarding melamine in eggs.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says that melamine transmitted into food products such as eggs and meat via animal feed is unlikely to present a risk to human health, but noted that there are still many unknowns regarding the extent of the contamination in China's food chain.

In a statement, Hong Kong food-safety authorities said a child weighing 10 kilograms would have to eat 24 medium-size eggs with 2.9 ppm of melamine to reach the tolerable daily intake limit, while a 60-kilogram adult would have to consume 283 eggs.