Dairy maker denies using toxic gelatin

BEIJING -- A major Chinese dairy maker has refuted a media report alleging that it added toxic industrial gelatin to its yogurt products.

In a statement released Friday, Beijing Sanyuan Food Co. said its production materials were purchased from the world's leading edible gelatin makers, either wholly foreign-funded or Sino-foreign joint ventures.

Quality tests have shown that both the materials used in the production of the edible gelatin and the final gelatin products are up to standards, it said.

The dairy products were sold after passing quality tests, Beijing Sanyuan said.

Lyu Shuqin, vice president of Beijing Sanyuan, said the company enforces a tough screening system for suppliers to ensure that all production materials are up to standards.

The 21st Century Business Herald newspaper carried a report on Friday alleging that the Beijing Sanyuan Food Co. once purchased toxic industrial gelatin from Gelita Cangnan Gelatin Co. in east China's Zhejiang Province.

The report said its reporters obtained documents showing that the dairy producer bought more than 20 tonnes of gelatin from the German firm, which was embroiled in an industrial gelatin scandal from last year to the beginning of this year.

China Central Television, the country's national broadcaster, said in a special report on March 15, World Consumer Rights Day, that Gelita Cangnan allegedly used leather scraps bought from leather companies to make gelatin that was later used for food and drug production.

Beijing Sanyuan Foods Co. is the only major dairy firm that was not implicated in the country's infant formula scandal in 2008 that left at least six infants dead and almost 300,000 with kidney illnesses.

Beijing Sanyuan even benefited from the scandal, with not only a rise in sales but also business expansion. In March 2009, the company bought core assets of Sanlu Group, a dairy firm based in Beijing's neighboring province of Hebei, which went bankrupt after the scandal.