Chinese Inspectors Find No Melamine, Uncover More Illegal Food Additives

More than four million law-enforcement officials have found no further cases of melamine-contaminated milk in China in the last four months, says the Chinese Health Ministry. But they have uncovered more than 7,620 cases of illegally used food additives, arrested 30 suspects, closed 3,309 unlicensed food makers and revoked 87 business licenses of makers using illegal food additives, said Su Zhi, deputy director with the ministry's food safety coordination and supervision bureau. The inspectors seized 68 tonnes of illegal food additives and 116.3 tonnes of excessively used food additives during the campaign, initiated when thousands of Chinese children became ill after being fed milk contaminated with melamine. Officials are about to publish a third “blacklist” of forbidden chemicals, based on new substances found by the inspectors after tip-offs from public informants.