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Nine indicted by the scandal of contaminated milk were brought before a court on Monday, state media reported, while the dairy industry promised to compensate families of hundreds of thousands of children affected by the product.

One of the trials were conducted in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the head office of the Sanlu Group, the dairy company at the center of the scandal. The remaining trials are conducted in three other cities surrounding Hebei province, reported the state news agency Xinhua.


Milk contaminated with melamine, a plastic substance caused kidney stones in infants. It was found that chocolate and yoghurt exported from China were contaminated with melamine, forcing managers of supermarkets and grocery stores in Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, to withdraw the product from their shelves.

Thousands of parents, upset by what they said was an abuse of the government of the good faith of consumers, demanded compensation for their dead or sick children.


The Association of Dairy Industry said Saturday that 22 producers in the sector made a single payment to the families of at least six babies who died and 294,000 others who suffered kidney problems from drinking milk powder contaminated with melamine, reported Xinhua on Saturday.

They also establish a fund to cover medical costs for future health problems, although the association did not disclose any figures, Xinhua said.


The first trials in the case began on Friday, when six men appeared.

Among those brought before a court on Friday was the business owner would have been the main supplier of melamine throughout China, state press said.


The police reported, quoted by Xinhua news agency that 40 years of Zhang Yujun, ran a shop in the suburbs of Jinan in the eastern province of Shandong, which produced the "protein powder, composed mostly of melamine and malt dextrin.

The lethal mixture was incorporated into milk down with water so they look more protein content. In the same case, another man, Yanzhang Zhang, 24, was accused of buying and reselling 230 tons of this dust to other traders.


The newspaper Legal Daily reported that Tian Wenhua, president and general manager of Sanlu, the dairy company at the center of the scandal, will also be processed by the accusation of "selling fake products and poor quality."