Caveat emptor

When I saw the story in the news about the Chinese contaminated milk powder that's harmed babies, I was reminded of last year's contaminated pet food that killed a number of dogs and cats here, also from Chinese sources. In both cases, a chemical used in plastics was added to increase a perceived protein content in the products A story in the Christian Science Monitor brings up an important point - it's impossible to oversee all aspects of business, and we must and do, at least to some degree, rely on peoples' integrity to insure the relative safety of products. Here's some of the story ....

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Behind bad baby milk, an ethical gap in China's business

Beijing - As Chinese officials warned Tuesday that contaminated milk powder may have sickened more than the 1,200 babies already identified, the scandal revealed more than a recurrent regulatory problem, Chinese and foreign experts suggested.

Rather, they said, it pointed to a deeper malaise in Chinese society where private profit often trumps the public good as the country races to create a market economy that has outstripped government regulators.

"China has the problems of any transitional economy," says Yanzhong Huang, a global health expert at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J. "But the deeper and more fundamental challenge China faces is a systematic lack of business ethics."

"You cannot fully police the whole food chain," adds Dali Yang, a politics professor at the University of Chicago. "A lot depends on changes in social norms. People have to recognize that integrity does matter." ......

Investigators say it appears that milk merchants, selling to Sanlu the raw milk they had bought from farmers, had added the chemical – normally used in plastics and fertilizers – to boost the milk's apparent protein content ......

Not only did Sanlu fail to detect the melamine in its milk powder, the company has also so far failed to explain why it did not publicly reveal the problem until Sept. 11, although it had received complaints from worried parents as early as last March, and identified the contamination on Aug. 6 .....

Last year, after a wave of food safety scandals involving pet food, toothpaste, and seafood, the Chinese government pledged stricter controls, especially of food destined for export ......

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- from 2007