Despite [perhaps because of? - Mod.JW] a national campaign, lapses in food safety are continuing [to unfold];
3 more [now 4, see below] Chinese brands of chicken's eggs have been found to contain high levels of the chemical melamine.

Tests in Hong Kong first revealed dangerously high levels of the substance in eggs from a mainland
supplier earlier this week [starting 26 Oct 2008]. [Mainland] officials were
reportedly aware of the contamination a month earlier [September 2008].


Like the milk scandal before it, the contamination of China's egg supply appears
to be far more widespread than first realized. And as before, it seems that local officials
on the mainland attempted to cover up news of the contamination, says the
BBC's Quentin Sommerville in Beijing.

A newspaper in Beijing reports that the sanitation department of Liaoning province, in the northeast,
began investigating a local egg producer at the beginning of October [2008]. It then ordered a ban on any media interviews.
Local officials say melamine was illegally mixed into chicken feed to make eggs [test]
richer in protein than they were, but central authorities have not commented.