Milk products at 52 firms free of melamine, says watchdog

The latest nationwide checks on milk products from 52 companies have shown they are free of melamine, the mainland's quality watchdog said.

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine tested milk products including yogurt, sterilised milk and pasteurised milk produced by the companies including dairy giants Yili, Mengniu, Bright Dairy and Sanyuan, Xinhua reported.

All the 232 batches tested were free of melamine, the industrial chemical that has contaminated baby formula and a range of dairy products.

Four babies were killed and at least 54,000 babies made ill on the mainland, official figures show, but the toll has not been updated for a few days.

The samples were randomly chosen from 19 big cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing , it said, adding they came from major milk production bases spanning 21 provinces and regions such as Hebei , Inner Mongolia , Jiangsu , and Beijing.

Since September 24, the quality watchdog has tested 763 batches of milk products from 55 companies and all were free of melamine, it added.

The watchdog also urged all supermarkets and shopping malls to make public a list of the companies and products that pass quality checks to ensure a sufficient supply of dairy products.