BEIJING, Oct 15: China was pulling all dairy products more than a month old from shops across the country on Wednesday in one of the biggest steps by authorities to end a deadly scandal over contaminated milk.

All dairy products made before Sept 14 will be tested for a chemical blamed for killing four babies and leaving more than 53,000 others sick, according to a notice posted on the product-safety watchdog's website.

“All supermarkets, shops, and all city, town and village-level vendors will urgently remove and seal up all milk powder and liquid milk made before Sept 14, pending further testing,” said the notice.

The announcement by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine gave no reason for the blanket removal of the goods or why the order was not issued when the scandal first broke last month.

The notice, posted this week and publicised in the state press on Wednesday, said only it was part of “inspections to sort out the dairy market”.

However, it appeared to indicate fears that contamination of Chinese milk products with the industrial chemical melamine was more widespread than originally thought.

China had said earlier that the products of at least 22 milk companies or nearly 12 per cent of products tested, had been found to contain melamine.

However, it has repeatedly stressed that many other dairy products made before Sept 14 had been given the all-clear, while all others after that date were safe.

Those recalled products that passed tests by local authorities would be allowed back on shelves with a special label declaring them safe, while those with excess melamine would not, according to the notice.

Indicating the sensitivity of the issue, staff at the product safety agency declined to comment on the mass recall when contacted by AFP, as did two major Chinese supermarket chains.

Normally used to make plastics, melamine has been found in fresh milk, powders, yoghurt and other goods containing Chinese milk.

In perhaps the biggest in a string of Chinese product safety scares in recent years, the melamine was apparently mixed into watered-down milk to give it the impression of having higher protein content.—AFP