THE food safety watchdog in southern Guangdong Province warned against tainted dairy products manufactured by a Zhuhai dairy company after 119 children were sickened after drinking milk, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

The provincial food safety agency had sealed up 4,167 boxes of the milk suspected of contamination while the manufacturer, Zhuhai Weiwei Daheng Dairy Company, recalled another 2,706 boxes of the product.

The government warned consumers in five cities, Zhuhai, Jiangmen, Foshan, Zhongshan and Guangzhou, against the risk of drinking 150-ml high-calcium milk, which was packed on March 26, the newspaper said.

Some 75 children in day-care centers in Zhuhai and Jiangmen were reported vomiting after drinking the milk Wednesday. The young patients were treated and released from hospital Friday.

Another 44 children were later reported sick after drinking the same product. No serious consequences were reported by the hospitals.

After analyzing samples collected from the hospitals and the product in stock, the local food safety enforcement authority said it found staphylococcus aureus intestinotoxin, which could lead to digestive infection.

The dairy company issued a public statement of apology and said it would compensate the sick. After careful investigation, the company said it had primarily ascertained a calcium ingredient imported from the United States was the problem.

The company was ordered by the government to stop all production pending a thorough overhaul, the newspaper said.

The contaminated products were distributed to 49 retailers in the five cities, according to the newspaper. There were no reports of the products being exported.

The incident prompted the Zhuhai Municipal Government to implement a comprehensive monitoring system to track problematic products and survey similarly infected outpatients in hospitals.

(Xinhua)