Three people have been arrested in China in a fresh crackdown on melamine-tainted milk products, police said Wednesday.

Zhang Wenxue, general manager of the Lekang Dairy Co. Ltd. in Weinan City, in the northwestern Shaanxi Province, Zhu Shuming, a vice general manger of the company and a workshop director, and Ma Shuanglin, a milk powder dealer in Weinan's Linwei District, were charged with manufacturing and selling food that does not meet hygiene standards, said Xu Qiang, deputy director of the Shaanxi Provincial Public Security Department.

Another vice general manger of the company, Tong Tianhu, had posted bail because of a serious heart disease, and would face the same charges, Xu said at a press conference.

Lekang is one of three companies blacklisted by the Ministry of Health for manufacturing and selling milk products laced with melamine, an industrial compound that can give a false positive on protein tests and causes kidney stones.

On Feb. 1, food safety authorities launched a 10-day crackdown on tainted milk products, which were found to have re-emerged in several provinces. But no deaths have been reported.

In 2008, at least six infants died after consuming melamine-contaminated milk products and 300,000 children across the country were sickened.

In November last year, two people were executed for their role in the scandal, which also resulted in the bankruptcy of state-owned dairy producer Sanlu.

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• Shanghai's toxic milk case referred for prosecution

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