Chinese dairy linked to bad milk knew of problems for months

The trial of Tian Wenhua, former board chairwoman and general manager of Sanlu Group Co., was the most high-profile yet in a food-safety crisis widely seen as a national disgrace, highlighting corporate and official malfeasance.

At least six babies died and nearly 300,000 were sickened by infant formula tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, while panicked parents across China rushed their children to hospitals for health checks. Middlemen who sell milk to dairy companies were accused of adding water to raw milk, then mixing in nitrogen-rich melamine to fool quality tests for protein content.

Normally used to make plastics and fertilizer, melamine can cause kidney stones and kidney failure when ingested in large amounts.

The discovery of melamine in dairy exports such as chocolate and yogurt triggered a slew of product recalls overseas.

Tian, three other top Sanlu executives and the company itself were charged with producing and selling fake or substandard products, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The executives could be executed if convicted, the China Daily newspaper reported.

The trial in the Shijiazhuang Intermediate People's Court finished Wednesday night, but no verdict was announced, said a duty officer at the court who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

As the trial began Wednesday, Tian told the court she learned of consumer complaints about problematic milk in mid-May, and led a company team set up to handle the case, Xinhua reported. She told the court that she didn't submit a written report on the situation to the government in Shijiazhuang, the northern Chinese city where Sanlu is based, until Aug. 2.

The emerging details showed how news of the contamination slowly emerged over several months, finally becoming public in September.

Sanlu received complaints about its baby formula as early as December 2007, with some parents saying they noticed red sediment in their children's urine, Xinhua said, citing prosecutors.

The complaints reached top executives, such as Tian, in May.

After product testing, the company learned Aug. 1 that its baby formula was contaminated with melamine, Xinhua said, though previous state media reports have said it was as early as June.

Tian's report to local authorities was submitted the next day. But Sanlu did not issue a public recall until Sept. 11, earning 47.5 million yuan ($6.9 million) in sales of toxic formula between Aug. 2 and the recall, Xinhua said.

News footage from the courtroom showed Tian and her colleagues hanging their heads as they appeared before a three-judge panel.

Seventeen other people linked to the scandal have gone on trial over the past few days, with several facing a possible death sentence. The defendants included people accused of producing melamine and marketing it to milk producers, as well as milk collectors who mixed the chemical into raw milk sold to major dairies.

Death sentences in the tainted milk case could be forthcoming as the Chinese government seeks to impress upon the country's many small and poorly regulated food producers that it is cracking down on shoddy products.