BEIJING - NEARLY a fourth of infants in the Chinese capital consumed milk formula tainted with melamine before the shoddy products were taken off store shelves, state media on Sunday cited survey by the city government as showing.

The door-to-door screening of more than 307,000 Beijing families with children under the age of three found that over 75,000 babies had been fed contaminated milk formula, the official Xinhua news agency said.

The survey, ordered by the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, was carried out from Sept 20 to Oct 24.

Four children have died and thousands of others have fallen ill from drinking milk formula adulterated with melamine, which was subsequently found in other drinks and foods, prompting Chinese-made products to be pulled from shelves worldwide.

More than 3,000 children remain in hospital in China.

Chinese officials have promised that all milk products on the country's store shelves are now safe and vowed to bring its food products up to international standards.

China began reviewing a tougher draft food safety law on Thursday following criticism from the United Nations over its sluggish response to the health scandal. -- REUTERS