Complaints spike over subpar baby formula imports

Dairy companies should be cautious about quality issues to prevent a crisis in brand trust, said Lin Jun, director of a dairy company that registers and imports milk products from New Zealand but sells solely in China.

"We authorize Sutton Group, an industry giant in New Zealand that also supplies infant formula for Wyeth and Nestle that's sold in Australia, to produce our milk powder," he said.

"In addition to self-inspections and tests conducted by Sutton Group, which would weed out any batch that fails to meet standards, New Zealand authorities test to see whether the baby formulas meet the national standards there, which allows the products to be shipped overseas," Lin added.

The products also need to pass all nutrition and bacterial-residual tests to attain approval from China's Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau to enter the country, he said.

Because some complaints involved sales practices of brick-and-mortar and online stores, experts urged efforts be made to close legal loopholes that overseas purchasing agents take advantage of.

Cao Mingshi, deputy secretary-general of Shanghai Dairy Association, said online sales are a problem as well.

"Many people have joined overseas purchasing of infant formula in recent years to grab a share of the booming business, but most of them sell online and don't hold certificates of food circulation permits as regular food sellers do," Cao said.

More than 133,000 baby formula products labeled "purchased overseas" were found on Taobao, China's leading e-commerce platform, on Sunday.

Zhang Qing, the father of a 3-year-old girl in Shanghai, said regulation of the industry should be tightened.

"To echo Premier Li Keqiang's requirement of ensuring supervision of baby formula be as strict as it is for medicine, the country should regulate the online market of baby formula as much as it does for medicine," he said.

Drugmakers and drugstores can sell medicines online only with the approval of the China Food and Drug Administration.