BEIJING (AFP) - – China's health ministry said Tuesday it had
ordered food safety authorities in central Hubei province to
investigate claims that milk powder has caused infant girls to grow
breasts.
Officials had already begun tests on the baby formula after
parents and doctors expressed fears that hormones in the milk
powder made by NASDAQ-listed Synutra had caused babies to develop
breasts.
"The Ministry of Health had attached great importance to this
issue," spokesman Deng Haihua told a news conference, according to
a transcript.
Local food safety authorities had earlier refused a parent's
request to investigate the formula made by Synutra, based in the
eastern city of Qingdao, saying they did not conduct tests at
consumers' behest, state media reported.
Medical tests indicated the levels of hormones in three girls,
ranging in age from four- to 15-months and who were fed the same
baby formula, exceeded those of the average adult woman, China
Daily reported on Monday.
A fourth case was reported in Beijing, Xinhua reported on
Tuesday.
The ministry said medical experts were also assisting a separate
medical investigation into the cause of the infants' condition.
Synutra insisted in a statement that its products were safe and
that no man-made hormones or illegal substances had been added
during production.
The company's shares plunged 27 percent on Monday in New York to
12.72 dollars, their steepest fall since China's 2008 tainted milk
scandal.
Chinese dairy products were recalled worldwide in 2008 after it
was found that melamine, which is used to make plastics, was widely
and illegally added to the products to give the appearance of
higher protein.
Melamine was found in the products of 22 Chinese dairy companies
in a massive scandal blamed for the deaths of at least six infants
and for sickening 300,000 others in China.
