food giant Nestle rendered an apology to the Chinese public on June 6, 2005 for the higher than permitted levels of iodine content in its powder milk for infants. Mu Li, Nestle China's chief executive, said the milk powder "unfortunately' deviated from the national safety standard. "Although we are always committed to national standards, the deviation still happened.' Nestle has said it is willing to recall all unqualified milk powder already sold. The sale of the product has already been suspended in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

In May 2005, the Zhejiang Administration for Industry and Commerce conducted quality checks on Nestle's powdered milk products and found that the iodine content for 91.7 per cent of them exceeded the Chinese standard (30-150 microgrammes (