That’s the thing about government regulation, it’s not a one-off deal but a constant struggle against assholes in the private sector taking liberties with their customers to make a buck.

It’s Revenge of the Milk:

China has launched a 10-day emergency crackdown on tainted milk products after several were found creeping back onto the market despite a massive scandal that sickened hundreds of thousands of children in 2008. (AP)

“Creeping back”??? WTF? That almost sounds cute. What are we really talking about here?

The sweep that started Monday comes after milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine were pulled from shelves in Shanghai and the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning and Hebei, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Some had been recalled in the previous scandal and repackaged.

I see. The guilty parties waited until they thought the government wasn’t paying attention any more, brought back the tainted products from the warehouses where they stashed it, and started selling it again.

This must be why my wife not only looks at the expiration date on EVERY SINGLE food item we purchase, but also ten other indicia pertaining to quality or genuineness. It takes us three freakin’ hours to get through the supermarket!

At least six children died and more than 300,000 fell sick in the 2008 scandal, where melamine, normally used in making plastics and fertilizer, was added to watered-down milk to fool inspectors testing for protein and increase profits.

And apparently no one made sure that inventories had been destroyed. Fake records? Corrupt inspectors? The possibilities are endless. Reminds me of Saddam Hussein and the damn weapons inspectors.

We have a new food safety legal regime here, and I understand that all this will take some time. But this episode does not fill me with a lot of confidence. Statements by the Health Minister puzzle me to no end:

“It’s an uncompleted task that has to be completed. Through the campaign, all melamine-tainted milk products will be found and destroyed to eliminate potential health risks facing the public,” he said, adding that enterprises are the first in line to be accountable for product safety and quality.

Why is the task still incomplete? What were they waiting for? (Apparently the response needed some motivation, such as kids getting sick again.)

The latest campaign will target areas including manufacturing, circulation and consumption, Chen said.

Why weren’t these areas targets of the last campaign, you know, when children were dying?

OK, I understand that there are a lot of dairy companies out there, and the government does not have enough inspectors to supervise destruction of tainted products. However, I think it should have been very clear in 2008 that any company that failed to destroy tainted products would suffer the wrath of God if it was later found to be repackaging and selling those products. You know, scare the crap out of ‘em. I don’t recall that sort of thing being discussed at the time.

As is my usual mantra on this blog: enforcement, enforcement, enforcement. This time around, let’s see some tough criminal prosecutions and a “shame” campaign in the media. These companies and their executives should be dragged out into the daylight.

I seem to have gotten myself a bit excited here. But after you read a quote like this next one, from a parent of one of the children who ingested this crap in 2008 and is still, apparently, suffering from kidney stones, I make no apologies for my tone:

As parents of the sick children, we have always asked the question: Where did all the recalled tainted milk products go?

Indeed.