China steps up checks on milk formula producers

China will step up checks on infant milk formula producers and eliminate sub-standard ones, a government statement said on Thursday. The China Food and Drug Administration will consult the Good Manufacturing Practices certification system used by drug producers to improve standards in baby milk formula production, said Teng Jiacai, deputy head of the administration. Companies using sub-standard technology and equipment shall be shut down, the statement said. In a similar overhaul in 2011, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine shut down 475 milk enterprises. China now has 127 infant formula producers and manufactured about 600,000 tonnes of the product in 2012. Demand for infant formula is booming in China, but confidence in domestic products was badly hit after a milk scandal in 2008, which killed six infants and sickened 300,000 over melamine-tainting.