BEIJING (AP) -- Police in China have detained three people suspected of selling tons of milk powder tainted with an industrial chemical, a year after more than 300,000 children were sickened in a massive milk safety scandal.
The general manager of the Shaanxi Jinqiao Dairy Co. in northern Shaanxi province and two employees were detained Dec. 2 and accused of producing and selling toxic food, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday.
China late last month executed a dairy farmer and a milk salesman for their roles in last year's scandal, in which milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine killed at least six children and sickened hundreds of thousands of others with kidney stones and kidney failure.
It was one of the country's worst food safety crises, and families continue to fight for compensation from the dairy companies involved.
Thursday's report said the Shaanxi dairy employees sold more than 5 tons of powder tainted with melamine to a food additive company in the southern Guangxi region in September. The Nanning Yueqian food additive company discovered the contamination last month.
None of the powder reached the market and all was confiscated, Xu Qiang, deputy head of the regional public security department, told Xinhua.
The Shaanxi Jinqiao Dairy Co. could not be reached for comment late Thursday.