China has arrested 19 people for allegedly selling 300 tons of expired milk powder, which carries the brand name of New Zealand company Fonterra.

The company announced that it has initiated an internal review. However, Fonterra denies any wrongdoing. Fonterra is one of the most popular milk brands in China.

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The police enquiry was started a few months back, which led to the discovery of one of the suspects selling the expired products to another company. The second company sold the expired products to the distributors in different regions, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Qinghai and Henan. The expired products were reporteldy sold as well in wholesale and via online.

The authorities seized 100 tons of such products. They also shut down the websites selling them.

On Sunday, the police and Shanghai's food safety regulators announced that suspects were operating under the name of Jiang Di International Trade Co Ltd.

The police was alerted in March following a raid on a retailer's warehouse. In the succeeding raids, the police found 109.2 tons of expired milk powder in a warehouse belonging to Jiang Di.

So far, no complaint has been reported about the ingestion of the said expired milk. The preliminary investigation shows that the group was trying to recoup their losses from the unsold imported food, which already reached its expiry.

China is taking tough steps to control food contamination cases. The country faced a milk powder crisis in 2013 when Fonterra admitted the contamination of the product due to an unsanitary pipe at its plant. 

Tagschina, Fonterra, new zealand