Chinese authorities have launched an emergency nationwide sweep for melamine-tainted milk goods after several products laced with the industrial compound, which killed at least six children in 2008, reappeared on shop shelves.
The state-run People's Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday that leftovers of milk powder laced with melamine, which can give a fake positive on protein tests, have been reused in dairy products, despite an earlier crackdown.
At a weekend meeting on food safety issues hosted by Chen Zhu, China's health minister, officials were ordered to launch an inspection campaign "to thoroughly check potential problems in food safety," the newspaper said.
"There are still some businesses and individuals that ignore the safety and health of the public and are blinded by greed," it added.
Last month, batches of dairy products made by three Chinese companies were removed from shops in the southwestern province of Guizhou, after testing positive for melamine.
Tainted milk products were also found in several provinces in 2009, from the northeastern province of Liaoning to the economic hub of Shanghai, the newspaper said.
There have been no reported deaths or illnesses from the latest batches of tainted milk which can cause kidney stones in children and made up to 300,000 infants sick in the 2008 scandal.
The scandal also triggered an uproar abroad, resulting in many Chinese dairy products being withdrawn from sale around the world.

Al-Jazeera/Ab