The ministry said that tests on 73 samples of infant formula had uncovered no sign of inappropriate hormones, after Chinese media had speculated that such hormones might be responsible for the infants’ development.
The official Xinhua news agency also quoted Chinese medical specialists as saying that the infants’ physiological development was not unheard of.
Widespread speculation in the Chinese media in recent days about the infants’ health, without the benefit of scientific analysis, has underlined the increasingly free-wheeling nature of Chinese media on health and business issues, as well as a national preoccupation with food safety. Milk powder contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical used to hide the effect of diluting raw milk with water, killed six babies and sickened 300,000 two years ago.
A Chinese milk powder company, Synutra, was at the center of suspicions regarding the three infant girls, who were fed milk prepared from its powder. The health ministry said that 42 of the 73 samples that it had tested without finding unusual levels of hormones had been Synutra’s milk, including one sample of a milk powder residue from one of the infant girls’ homes.
Synutra has repeatedly denied that there is any problem with its infant formula.