"Boss Huang, I swear to heaven, our company is at most occasionally slack, and we have absolutely never added such a thing to the milk powder. It would do us no good!" Boss Tian quickly swore, her heart filled with extreme fear. If Huang He were to expose this matter, her company would not only be ruined but she herself would be imprisoned for several years.
"I know!" Huang He nodded. "This should just be an isolated case. After we discovered this problem, we immediately purchased over 10 batches of milk powder from different production dates for comprehensive testing and found that only milk powder from two dates contained this sjQA."
"Furthermore, not all milk powder from the same date contained it, only some of it did. So, I believe there is a problem with some of the milk sources, and the quantity is not large!" Huang He said.
"Someone must have poisoned it! It must be some damned scoundrel who poisoned my milk source," Boss Tian immediately shifted the blame to a mastermind, as this matter could absolutely not have been done by SL's own employees, otherwise, the company would be finished.
The other bosses around did not think the same way. Seeing Boss Tian's reaction, they secretly wondered if they should report this matter. Even if someone was found to have poisoned it, SL's reputation would be greatly damaged, and the market share they vacated would become their own.
Boss Tian glared angrily at the surrounding bosses. Huang He had no enmity with her and had no reason to harm her in secret. It could only be one of the competitors present who was jealous of SL's leading position in the domestic milk powder market and wanted to seize their company's market.
"It's not necessarily poisoning! Because not only SL milk powder, but after discovering sjQA, in order to ensure the safety of the entire national market and prevent the Jiangnan Mall from selling such consumer-harming products again, we tested all legitimate brands of milk powder available on the market. We found that a total of 7 brands of milk powder tested positive for sjQA, including Yili, Mengniu, Feihe, Junlebao, Yashi Li, and Wandashan!" Huang He continued.
At the same time, Hu Jing had six boxes of milk powder brought up, presumably containing the problematic milk powder.
Coincidentally, the bosses of these six milk powder brands were all at this dining table. When they heard Huang He mention their brand names, they were all stunned.
They had originally planned to spectate on the SL milk powder scandal, only to find themselves embroiled in it. Their own milk powder actually contained this damned sjQA! If this were to be exposed... they dared not imagine what fate awaited their brands.
Boss Tian's face showed a slight hint of joy. It was good that everyone was in the same boat, and it was also good that everyone was unlucky, as long as it wasn't just SL who was unlucky.
"Everyone, someone wants to destroy the entire Chinese dairy industry!" The boss of Yili stood up and said indignantly. "If it were just SL alone, it would be one thing, but now that all seven of us have tested positive for sjQA, this is definitely not poisoning due to personal vendetta. Someone wants to destroy the entire dairy industry!"
"That's right!" The boss of Mengniu immediately added. "Everyone, have you noticed? All seven of us are among the top seven dairy brands nationwide. If someone takes us down using such methods, then more than half of the entire Chinese milk powder market will become vacant. Who will benefit from this market is self-evident!"
After speaking, the bosses of these seven milk powder companies immediately looked at the representatives of other milk powder companies present. It was clear that they all believed that only their competitors would do such a thing, aiming to seize their market share and allow their own companies to grow.
The representatives of other milk powder companies quickly offered explanations, but unfortunately, their explanations were somewhat weak.
"Gentlemen, there is no need for mutual suspicion. I believe this matter was definitely not done by other competitors present!" Huang He said.
"Why?" The bosses of the seven companies immediately asked, while other milk powder companies looked at Huang He with gratitude.
"The reason is very simple. Firstly, I cannot guarantee that other companies have not been contaminated with sjQA. After all, no matter how capable the testing units in Jiangnan are, they cannot inspect all batches and all brands of milk powder nationwide. Therefore, there is a high probability of missed inspections. Perhaps other milk powder companies have also been added with sjQA, but we just haven't discovered it!" Huang He said.
As soon as he spoke, the expressions of the other milk powder bosses became uncertain. It was good to have their suspicions cleared, but if their own products were contaminated with sjQA, then they would be completely finished.
"But that still doesn't prove that all companies have been poisoned. If this was done by one company, then it is very likely hidden among you all!" Boss Tian said.
"I also think it's unlikely because this kind of action is like killing eight hundred enemies while losing one thousand of your own," Huang He said calmly. "If poisoning could capture market share, then the entire national food industry would be poisoning its competitors. How could it have developed to this point!"
"Especially for a large number of domestic brands, if such problems occur simultaneously, all consumers will definitely suspect that other domestic brands might also have problems!"
"They don't need to confirm the truth of this problem; they will completely reject domestic brands. Because buying domestic brands might lead to a hit, but if you don't buy them, you will definitely not be hit!"
"Gentlemen, think about it, if such a situation occurs, who would benefit?" Huang He retorted.
"Foreigners!" Boss Tian was the first to react, saying through gritted teeth.
This logic was not difficult to deduce. If all domestic milk powders were exposed for scandals, and Chinese people still wanted to consume safe dairy products, they would inevitably have to purchase foreign products.
"These guys! What malicious intentions!"
"How could they do such a shameless thing?"
"Is there anything impossible about that? A hundred years ago, they openly transported chests of opium into our country!"
"Damn it, it must be these foreign bastards. They have long coveted our dairy industry. Several years ago, several foreigners wanted to acquire our companies, but I refused them. Now they have done such an inhuman thing!"
With Huang He's slight guidance, all suspicion was immediately directed towards foreign milk powder companies, which was exactly what Huang He wanted.
Of course, Huang He was well aware that the actual culprits behind these good deeds were some dairy farmers.
According to later investigations, the practice of adding sjQA actually began in 2000, but at that time, only one dairy farmer was doing it.
They had accidentally discovered that adding sjQA to milk could increase its viscosity and pass the milk companies' inspections.
At the same time, this dairy farmer knew that adding sjQA was a very dangerous matter, so he kept it a secret for several years.
Because milk powder was produced by uniformly mixing collected milk and then collectively processing it into milk powder, the problematic milk sources were diluted by a large amount of milk. The sjQA that ultimately ended up in a bag of milk powder was very trace amounts, and it would not cause significant problems even if infants consumed it.
Even if there were problems, they would only be discovered when one grew up to be a teenager and found that they had developed kidney stones... By that time, who would think it had anything to do with the milk powder they drank as infants?
So, this individual continued to do this very safely, without being discovered. Gradually, the mental strain loosened, and they naively believed that sjQA might be a harmless additive, just like edible additives, and could be added freely.
Coincidentally, the Fuyang case occurred at this time, and milk companies became more stringent in their inspections of milk sources. Many milk sources that could have previously passed were rejected, and a large number of dairy farmers faced huge losses.
These dairy farmers had long noticed that the milk source from this family was abnormal. After all, everyone ate the same feed, drank the same water, and the calves were bred from the same bull. How could the milk produced by your family be so thick while ours was like diarrhea?
So, the severely losing dairy farmers collectively approached them, demanding an explanation, or they would report it to the police for investigation.
In fear, this dairy farmer had no choice but to hand over their secret recipe. Thus, the dairy farmers of an entire village began to add sjQA to their milk.
As a result, the sjQA content in the milk sources began to increase significantly, reaching tens or even hundreds of times the previous levels. This made the harm to infants incomparable.
However, on a national scale, this was still a very small matter.
But once a secret begins to spread, it will only spread further and wider. In the future, as time goes by, not only the dairy farmers of this village learned about the wonderful uses of sjQA, but it gradually spread throughout the country. It is said that at that time, 5% of dairy farmers learned this secret and began to add what they believed to be safe food additive sjQA to their milk, solely to pass inspections.
Then, the situation became uncontrollable, until 2008, when the entire affair exploded, leaving the Chinese dairy industry in a state of disarray.
Huang He knew all these situations, but this was because he had seen subsequent news reports. At this time, Huang He and Jiangnan Group had only conducted inspections. Besides the fact that the milk powder contained these substances, they did not possess milk source data and could not test the milk sources. How could they possibly know where the problem originated?
Therefore, Boss Huang's deduction that foreigners were behind it was a very reasonable assumption. No one could question this deduction.
At this time, the milk powder company bosses never dreamed that this would be the work of dairy farmers. In their subconscious minds, such a matter was undoubtedly a conspiracy by competitors, because if it were them, they would do the same. Therefore, they were all firmly convinced that foreigners were responsible for this.
Thus, Huang He said directly, "Gentlemen, I suggest that we severely crack down on these foreign milk powder companies with malicious intentions and prevent them from entering the Chinese market."
"I heard that our Chinese milk product national standards are already higher than those in Europe and America, which blocks many low-priced products from entering our Chinese market. I think it would be better to raise the entire industry standard by about 50%. This way, all milk companies worldwide will be unable to meet our standards, and they simply won't be able to get in!"
"The Chinese market should remain our own market, for Chinese milk companies!" Huang He said righteously at the end.