In Yahoo news today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081031/ap_on_bi_ge/as_china_nestle

"From the first moment, the first minute we heard about the problem, we mobilized quite a sizable effort," CEO Paul Bulcke said at a news conference to inaugurate a research and development center in Beijing. "We mobilized close to 45-50 people worldwide to be part of the solution and containment of this problem."

Apparently the tainting of milk is an "open secret" in China.  And it's not just melamine:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122567367498791713.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
 
Wall Street Journal Online November 3, 2008
Tainting of Milk Is Open Secret in China
 
"Before melamine-laced milk killed and sickened Chinese babies and led to recalls around the world, the routine spiking of milk with illicit substances was an open secret in China's dairy regions, according to the accounts of farmers and others with knowledge of the industry.
Farmers here in Hebei province say in interviews that "protein powder" of often-uncertain origin has been employed for years as a cheap way to help the milk of undernourished cows fool dairy companies' quality checks. When the big companies caught on, some additive makers switched to toxic melamine -- which mimics protein in lab tests and can cause severe kidney damage -- to evade detection.

China's biggest local seller of liquid milk, Mengniu Dairy Co., and multinational food company Nestlé SA both say they were aware that Chinese farmers and traders added unauthorized substances to raw milk, but that they didn't know melamine was among them. "We knew there was adulteration" going on for many years, says Zhao Yuanhua, Mengniu's spokeswoman. Among other common milk additives: a viscous yellow liquid containing fat and a combination of preservatives and antibiotics, known as "fresh-keeping liquid."


(My comment here:  )

But nobody did anything about it, it seems, not even Nestle, who could have stopped buying Chinese milk products in an instant.

More at link.

I will make an all out effort to NEVER buy another Nestle product as long as I live.
Dirtbags

This company just let this go on, knowing all about it, and chose to look the 'other way' as long as the money was rolling in and there was tremendous profit to be made while unsuspecting children and adults continued to consume this toxic mix as it slowly damaged their kidneys? WTF - no company has a conscience anymore so it seems. They are saying in effect - we know their are toxins in the products we sell but we could give a rats butt if you drop dead from buying our products as long as the cash registers ring up sale after sale after sale. How could they, how can they continue to - why we know why - no one will hold them accountable - that's why. Even if they were to feel a twinge of remorse - many other companies are probably out there doing the exact same thing IMO, and buyer, fill our coffers, then you can drop dead as long as we have the moola, and plenty of it.

That was part of the reason I gave up brands. Too hard to keep track of who owns what . . .

This saddens me enormously: that a commonly perceived "good" company like Nestle has 'looked the other way.'  It took a universal outcry over sickened and dead babies for them to step up to the plate.  The world is not what I thought it was when I was a kid.

No the world is not the same at all. Lots of people need to take off the rose colored glasses, stop daydreamng; and see the world for what it has become and is becoming.

And the sentence at the very bottom of that article speaks volumes too:  "The government has not said what it is doing about the problem of melamine in animal feed."  Afterall, its only animal feed.