China's Milk Confirmed Safe, Healthy

Most soft-packaged germ-free milk on the Chinese market has stable quality and is good to drink, the China Consumer Association has announced.

According to a recent survey conducted by the association and the Milk Quality Supervision Center of the Ministry of Agriculture, all sampled products passed the State's sanitary standards and had higher nutritional standards than the State requirement.

"In general, germ-free pure milk products on the Chinese market have reliable quality and can provide plentiful and balanced nutrition to consumers," Qiu Yuanheng, an engineer of the Milk Quality Supervision Center with the Ministry of Agriculture, was quoted as saying by Tuesday's China Daily.

Nutritionists said about 500 milliliters of milk can provide 50 percent of the animal protein and calcium needed by an ordinary individual each day. Milk is one of the best sources of calcium.

But milk is not traditionally part of the Chinese diet and occupies only a marginal segment of grocery sales currently.

The annual per capita milk consumption in China is only 6.4 kilograms, according to statistics from the association, much less than the 105-kilogram world average and the 300-kilogram level in some developed nations.






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