A community screening has found nearly one quarter of the 300,000-strong babies in the Chinese capital once consumed tainted milk powder.

The door-to-door survey among the city's 307,779 families with infants under age three found 75,474, or 24.52 percent of the babies were fed with the contaminated formula.

The large-scale community screening, the first of its kind in China, lasted from September 20- October 24.

China's contaminated dairy product scandal was exposed on July 16 after 16 babies, who were fed milk made from powder produced by Sanlu Group, developed kidney stones.

In the scandal, melamine, often used in the manufacture of plastics, was added to substandard or diluted milk to make protein levels appear higher. At least three infants died and more than 50,000 were sickened after prolonged drinking the contaminated milk.

(China Daily October 27, 2008)