MARCH 19, 2003 was an unforgettable day. A total of 292 children from eight primary schools in Haicheng of Northeast China's Liaoning Province suffered food poisoning after drinking a kind of "high nutrition soybean milk".

Most of the children experienced nausea, headaches and upset stomachs, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps. One negative result of the case was that over 200 million orders of student milk (drinking milk at school is a project encouraged by the State) decreased to only about 300,000 orders.

In December of 2003, the Ministry of Health released a report on tea quality: among the 124 samples examined, 12 samples failed to meet acceptable standards for lead content. Nine substandard tea products came from Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province, a place well-known for its high-quality tea.

In the same month, shark fin soaked in hydrogen peroxide produced in Guangdong Province was exposed by the media. Although hydrogen peroxide functions as a disinfectant, it contains toxins harmful to the health. The exposure led to a 90 per cent fall in sales of shark fin in the province.

The most well-known food safety case concerned traditional namebranded Jinhua ham, which was found to be using dichlovos (a heavy pesticide) to preserve the meat. It is said no flies were interested in the ham after this "process". After exposure by the media, a survey showed that over 44 per cent of consumers were unwilling to buy ham with this previously trusted brandname.

A big case in 2004 was the "poisonous milk powder" incident in Anhui Province's Fuyang area. Over 200 "big-head" babies were found in the area one after another. The reason was they had been fed on low-quality milk powder which had affected the growth of infants. An investigation by the local government found 45 low-quality milk powders on sale. A total of 20 people related to the production of the substandard baby-food have been imprisoned. (Star News)