China's Health Ministry Thursday announced that a panel of nine experts had been assembled to probe claims that milk powder made by a Chinese company caused infant girls to grow breasts.

In a statement to Xinhua, the ministry said it was "directly investigating the claimed premature puberty cases at the request of Hubei Province," and that it would make public the investigation results as soon as possible.

A panel of endocrine, pediatric and food safety experts had been set up by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to study the premature puberty cases in consultation with local authorities, it said.

The statement said "relevant technical organizations" were already testing milk powder samples from the market and from homes of the infant girls.

Parents and doctors in Hubei were reported earlier this month voicing fears that milk powder produced by Nasdaq-listed Synutra International had caused at least three infant girls to develop prematurely.

At a regular press conference on Aug. 10, Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua said food safety authorities were testing samples of milk powder made by Synutra.

The credibility of China's dairy industry took a hammering in 2008 when milk laced with melamine, a chemical added to milk products to make their protein content seem richer, sickened 300,000 children and killed six.

(Xinhua News Agency August 12, 2010)