After a contaminated baby’s milk product made thousands ill, the Chinese Government has vowed to restore faith in the ‘China’ brand. This announcement comes as the European Union banned imports of Chinese products containing milk.

“It’s not just food or dairy,” Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has told a World Economic Forum event in the northern city of Tianjin. “We will make the entire ‘Made in China’ brand worry-free and reputable for both the Chinese and the people across the world.”

The Government said it had tested 47 brands of milk and yoghurt and detected no trace of melamine, an industrial chemical used to make plastics and the apparent cause of the current baby formula crisis.

In a statement on the central government website, Commerce Minister Chen Deming says, “Currently, it is extremely important to restore consumer confidence in the countrys milk product brands. This can only be achieved through our efforts, through effective monitoring and detection.”

Production at the Chinese company Sanlu, 43 percent owned by New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, has been shut down and its products recalled. The contamination has led to the deaths of four infants and illnesses to thousands of others.

Sanlu allegedly cut a deal worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover up negative reports about poisoned babies more than a week after Fonterra was alerted to the crisis, New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times reports.

It makes you wonder if anything can be done to assure consumers that products coming from China can be regarded as safe, considering the country’s track record of scandals in its manufacturing industry over the safety of Chinese-made toys, drugs and food.

What do you think can be done to save the ‘Made in China’ brand?