China's Tainted-Milk Crisis Grows Despite Official Claims

Du Qunjun, a former salesman for several dairy factories, said that unless the milk testing process is overhauled, other problems would be found with the milk supply. Now farmers add melamine. But previously, they used urea, a component of urine, to falsely improve protein counts, he said.

"The biggest problem for the industry is actually the source of fresh milk. If this problem is not solved, sooner or later there will be an even bigger scandal than this," Du said.

In the summer, farmers use stimulants to increase the milk production of their cows, Du said. They also use antibiotics and preservatives. "It's even worse with stimulants because they accumulate in the body. Farmers spend nearly $1,500 to buy a cow, so they will do everything they can to make the most of it."

For now, inspections of raw milk have been stepped up.

"They should have caught this scandal earlier, because we all know many farmers have been selling tainted milk," said Chen Yanhui, manager of a milk farm for Sanyuan Dairy Co. on the outskirts of Beijing. "But in the past, nobody checked for melamine and held the farmers responsible.

"Some of those small farmers make even more money than us because they've gotten away with selling tainted milk. We are not making money, we're just barely breaking even," he said.

Researchers Liu Songjie and Zhang Jie contributed to this report.