E. coli conservatism: baby milk is the next frontier (UPDATED)

This story hasn't broken in U.S. papers yet:

Twenty percent of Chinese dairy firms probed in the wake of a baby milk health scare have been found to have produced melamine-tainted formula, state media reported on Tuesday.

Chinese quality officials last week ordered a nationwide probe into all baby milk powders after it was reported that dozens of children had developed kidney stones after drinking tainted formula produced by the Sanlu Group.

Two infants have since died and more than 1,200 diagnosed with kidney illness in a growing scandal that authorities have warned may be yet to peak.

The head of the state-owned company has been sacked.

The results of the government-led probe announced on Tuesday showed that Sanlu Group, which has been the focus of public anger over the scandal, is by far from the only offending company.

Out of 109 dairy producers checked, 22 had been found to have produced batches of milk contaminated with melamine, including Beijing Olympic Games supplier Yili and other major brands, state television said, citing China's quality watchdog.

State-owned Sanlu, 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, topped the list of offenders with all 11 batches checked found to be tainted with melamine, a banned toxin linked to pet deaths in the United States last year.

It' been huge in New Zealand, but I've only seen mention so far in the U.S. business press; here Forbes moves the ball down the field:

A tainted food scare coming just days ahead of the opening of the Beijing Olympic games on Aug. 8, would have been a PR nightmare for the Chinese authorities--and the central government's Propaganda Department had given Chinese media guidance not to report on food safety among several issues for the duration of the game. But the appearance of a cover-up at the local and provincial level now emerging will undermine the extensive work done by central government to clean up China's reputation on product safety.

But all Americans should care about this story very, very much. Melamine, recall, was the pet-food contaminate this blog reported comprehensively on last year. Why should you be worried? Because, as CAF research director Eric Lotke found in his important report Eating Dangerously, over the past thirty-five years American food imports have doubled while FDA port inspections have gone from 35,000 to 5,000 annually; and over the past twenty years—thanks, E. coli conservatives!—imports have tripled while inspection rates have flattened. Between 1991 and 2006, government inspections per dollar of imports dropped by almost three quarters.

(Overnight update: third baby dies; AP weighs in)

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future