For the last two years I have had the honor of speaking in China on food safety and civil litigation – the ability for all consumers to stand up to corporations who poison them and their children.  I will be back again this year in September.

Now a Chinese court has officially accepted the first lawsuit seeking compensation for last year’s tainted milk scandal, state media said Wednesday, opening up the possibility of a flood of court actions. A district court in the northern city of Shijiazhuang decided on Wednesday that it would hear the suit filed against the Sanlu Group, the dairy firm at the centre of the poisoned milk controversy.

The lawsuit was filed by an unnamed parent of a child who was sickened by the milk. At least six infants died and nearly 300,000 were made sick last year by milk powder contaminated by the industrial chemical melamine, which was added to milk supplies to give the appearance of a higher protein content.