Dairy blamed for delaying warning
China’s health minister blamed a dairy for the delay in warning the public about tainted milk powder linked to kidney stones in infants and at least one death, as authorities increased the number of known sick babies to 432.
Officials defended their response to China’s latest product safety disaster. They said 19 people had been detained and 78 were being questioned about how the banned chemical melamine was added to milk sold to Sanlu Group Co., China’s biggest producer of milk powder.
The officials said they were not alerted to the infant formula problem until Monday, even though Sanlu had received complaints as early as March and its tests found a banned chemical in the milk powder in August. The company ordered a recall Thursday.
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