New Dairy Safety Standard Causes Debates

China's Health Ministry introduced new national dairy standards in June, following a series of episodes involving infant formulas. The public has long awaited these standards, as the dairy industry's record of tainted milk incidents continues to grow. The most famous of these happened in 2008, when the chemical Melamine was found in several brands of infant formula. Last month, the chemical surfaced again in some areas of China. Most recently, the Chinese Ministry of Health has promised to probe claims that infant formula made by a Chinese company was tainted with a hormone causing infant girls to grow breasts.

In the newly-released standards for raw milk, protein content guideline declines to 2.8% from the previous 2.95% and the micro-organism content allowance increases to 2 million per millimeter from previous 0.5 million. The new standards have raised a hot debate in the Chinese dairy industry. Zeng Shouying, deputy director of the Technology and Industry Committee of the China Dairy Association, thinks this standard too low.

"There are no international standards with protein contents as low as 2.8. The quality of the end-products will significantly decline."

Zeng Shouying also considers 2 million micro-organisms per millimeter raw milk unreasonable.

"With such a high microorganism count in raw milk, the shelf life will be shortened."

However, other experts believe this standard take into consideration the current state of animal husbandry in China. Wang Jiaqi is from the Institute of Animal Science at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science,

"Small scale production and varied feeding environments lead to large differences in the types of dairy cows available across China."

Cows fed with low-quality feed can produce milk with lower protein content. To meet regulations, farmers may be tempted to add chemicals to their milk, such as melamine, which has been shown to increase protein counts. By lowering the protein requirements, officials hope to improve the quality of milk overall because farmers will be less tempted to use additives.

The microorganism content has its own debate. Wang Zhutian was the team leader for the committee in charge of drafting the new dairy standards.

"Generally speaking, micro-organism is not a direct food safety index; these micro-organisms can not lead to serious disease."

As milk goes through the production process, it naturally gathers micro-organisms that create the natural state of the milk we drink at home. The presence of some of these bacteria is normal and even beneficial to our health. While it is impossible to kill all micro-organisms in milk. The new standards that allow for more micro-organisms to be present in milk may lead to a shorter shelf life overall, but carry the added benefits of less processing to rid the milk of essentially harmless micro-organisms.

Xu Huanyu, Deputy Secretary General of the Dairy Association of Liaoning Province in northeast China, thinks the new guidelines provide broader choices for consumers.

"Under the premise of assuring people's health, the new dairy standard system will bring more milk products to market, which offers a selection for consumers."