The tainted milk scandal from 2008 has resulted in the execution of two people in China. The two have been the only sentenced to death in the case, which involved diluting milk with melamine, an industrial chemical.
The two individuals were a dairy farmer and a milk salesman. They were executed on Tuesday. Melamine, you may recall, is the same chemical that was used to produce higher protein levels in the tainted pet food that came from China in 2007. Melamine is used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizers.
Zhang Yujun, a farmer, was executed for endangering public safety, and Geng Jinping for producing and selling toxic food. Nineteen others were sentenced in January, but these were the only to have received the death penalty.
The tainted milk from 2008's scandal left at least six children dead and sickened more than 300,000. This incident is one of China's worst-ever food safety scandals, and Beijing was determined to prove it can respond swiftly to such an incident. Problematically, China has been involved in several food safety scares over the past few years, as well as toy safety scandals.
The reason melamine was added to the milk was to reduce costs to the dairy farmers and milk salespeople, while at the same time increasing the appearance of protein's percentage in the milk. Inspectors would be fooled by the melamine, if they were not specifically looking for it.
Geng produced and sold the milk for the now-defunct Sanlu Group Co., which was at the time one of China's biggest dairies. Sanlu's general manager, Tian Wenhua, was given a life sentence in the scandal. Three other former Sanlu executives were given between five years and 15 years in prison.
Written by Michael Santo
HULIQ.com
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