China's dairy products quality continues to improve: Report

BEIJING — Some 99.8 percent of fresh milk and 99.5 percent of dairy products checked last year were up to standard, according to a dairy quality report released Wednesday.

The quality of domestic dairy products continued to improve in 2017, according to the report jointly released by the Dairy Association of China (DAC) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).

The country's milk industry has recovered from the 2008 safety scandal, when infant formula produced by Sanlu Group, then a leading dairy company, was found to contain melamine, killing six babies and leaving thousands seriously ill.

Spot checks last year detected no illegal additives, such as melamine, the report said.

Some 98.7 percent of infant formulas checked were up to standards, exceeding many other domestically produced food products, according to the report.

Major quality and sanitary indicators were up to the standards of developed countries, MOA official Wang Jiaqi told a press conference for the report's release.

The quality of milk and dairy products has been improved as China has taken a string of measures over the past year, including improving regulations and industry standards and tightening supervision, said Liu Yaqing, deputy secretary of the DAC.

China produced 37.12 million metric tons of milk and 29.93 million tons of dairy products last year, ranking third after the United States and India, the report showed.