Update on China's Milk Crisis

While I assume that many of my readers are learning about China's milk crisis on reliable international news, I still feel the need to share my updates. I just read on Yahoo News that the number of children affected by the tainted milk has jumped up to 53,000 infants. Nearly 80% of those affected by the scandal are children ages 2 and under.

This is our household.

We drink the milk, eat the ice-cream bars and chomp the M&Ms all being recalled in foreign countries.

One of the most appalling aspects of this crisis is that all recalled items remain on the shelf in Shanghai. Although Singapore and Hong Kong have released recall lists, and cleared all affected items from their shelves, I can still go to the buy and pick up melamine tainted milk if I so choose.

Worse - internationally recognized companies have failed to make a statement on the quality of their dairy products (with the exception of Starbucks - way to go!). So many days into the scandal, and a total lack of response from companies such as Coldstone Creamery and Dairy Queen, Haagen Dazs and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf have remained suspiciously silent, while continuing to sell their products. When asked (by us, at a local store), an employee at Coldstone said that they ship all of their ingredients from the United States - including the milk. Upon reflection, I believe she lied. First, milk is not the key ingredient in the ice cream sold at Coldstone Creamery. Second, if Coldstone could ship milk or cream safely across the Pacific Ocean, others would do so as well. No one does - I can not buy American milk anywhere in China.

By comparison to the United States, it is only fair to point out that America has its share of food scandals. Tomatos apparently cleared the shelves this summer. The difference? The tomatoes this summer cleared the shelves. Once a problem was discovered, the FDA treated it as an emergency and reacted strongly to be rid of the problem entirely. Once the problem was discovered in China, the press was alerted and the average consumer was not otherwise affected. No shortage on milk has occurred, and no ice-cream stores have stopped their sales. Starbucks is the only company owning up to the possibility that they're affected - a possibility with much farther reaching impacts than just one company.