Several giant dairy firm executives chose not to comment on the standards for milk quality after an industry expert said that China has the lowest milk quality standards in the world. This expert further pointed out that much of the blame should be on large companies that dominate the industry and give the lowest possible prices to farmers for raw milk.
"Milk processors and farmers all know that money can easily solve the problem of the milk's low protein content and high bacteria count but they have instead reduced their investment because of low profit margins," said Wang Dingmian, the former vice-chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Dairy Association, on June 19.
According to Wang, if cows are fed enough, the protein content of their milk would rise within a week. Instead, dairy farmers have reduced the amount of feed they give cows because of the low price they get from the big dairy companies.
Lessons not learned
The companies Wang talked about decided not to respond to his comments, saying either "no comment" or that they were "busy at meetings."
China eased its milk quality standards in 2010, increasing the maximum limit of bacteria acceptable in raw milk from 500,000 per milliliter to 2 million per milliliter, 20 times more than the maximum limit in Europe. The minimum requirement for protein content was also lowered from 2.95 grams per 100 grams of milk to 2.80 grams.
International standards call for protein content to be at 3 grams per 100 grams of milk. The acceptable amount of bacteria in raw milk in Europe is 100,000 per milliliter.
According to Wang, the reason for relaxing quality standards was that the government was held hostage by these companies' profits.
"The revised standards for raw milk, normal-temperatured milk, and pasteurized milk were drafted by two Chinese dairy giants！Mengniu Dairy Co., Ltd. and Yili Industrial Group," he said.
The high bacteria count in milk is also caused by insufficient capital investment.
According to Wang, large diary companies did not learn their lesson after the 2008 milk scandal, in which six infants died from kidney stones and other kidney damage, and a further 860 babies were hospitalized after consuming infant formula adulterated with melamine.
"The prolonged duration and high temperature during milk processing has caused the multiplication of bacteria in the milk," Wang said.
Let's open our own cattle farm
Food safety experts claimed the system of self-regulating by dairy companies would not help the industry to attain higher standards because some of their branch plants cannot meet higher standards.
In April, 251 children at Yuhe Township Primary School in Yulin, Shaanxi Province, fell ill after drinking school milk manufactured by one of Mengniu's local plants in the province. Test results released later said the milk met China's national standards.
"This shows that the national standards for milk quality are flawed," said Sang Liwei, a food-safety lawyer and the China representative of the NGO Global Food Safety Forum.
The issue on milk quality also raises public concern, if not anger, as some web users posted their concern on weibo, China's microblogging site which is similar to twitter in the U.S.
"Should we give up drinking milk or just open our own cattle farm?" a web user commented.
"There is an intense debate concerning milk quality standards, which the government had loosened to meet the current conditions of the industry; some of us are forced to buy imported infant formula," another posted.
Wang suggested that a flexible policy be brought in under which high prices are paid to farmers for high-quality milk, so farmers are motivated to ensure their farms produce better quality raw milk.
"A lot of bacteria in milk may mean microbiological problems occur more easily," Sang said. "If companies handling the milk do not strictly follow procedures for the storage and transportation of the milk, there will be food safety incidents," he said.
