Cross your fingers, but Vancouver consumers seem to have escaped the contaminated baby-milk scandal that has swept China. A spokesman for The Canadian Food Inspection Agency confirmed to the Straight today that after spot checks on 300 retail establishments throughout Canada, including 75 stores in Vancouver, it had not uncovered any signs of the tainted formula.

The inspections were conducted as a result of melamine contaminations being found in a baby milk powder that have so far claimed the lives of two infants and sickened 1,253 others in China. Melamine is an industrial chemical that is usually found in the manufacture of plastic cutlery.

Sanlu Bei Bei Infant Powder is not approved for sale in Canada, but officials are worried the product could have been illegally imported and for sale at stores carrying ethnic food products. The CFIA has ordered Canadian border officials to increase security and block any attempts made to import the formula.

According to a report today in The Times, 340 children remain in hospital and 53 of those are in a critical condition. And China Daily reported that “Their number could rise as the search for more infants fed Sanlu milk spreads across the country’s rural areas.”

The CFIA and Health Canada are advising consumers not to buy any infant formula milk products imported from China.

Yesterday, CBC reported, Chinese police arrested two brothers, surnamed Geng, who operate a milk collection centre in Hebei province and are believed to have sold three tons of adulterated formula to Sanlu Group, a Chinese dairy products company. The brothers are suspected to have added water to the milk to increase its volume and then added melamine to elevate protein levels so it could still meet food industry standards.