Biologic Technology Development, one of the companies accused of exporting contaminated protein, on unspecified charges. On 29 May 2007, in actions not linked directly to the protein export scandal, Xinhua reported that Zheng Xiaoyu (郑筱萸), the former head of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), had been convicted of personally approving unproven and unsafe medicines after taking bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies totaling more than 6.49 million RMB (approximately 850,000 US dollars). These fraudulent approvals were estimated to have resulted in hundreds of patient deaths; consequently, Zheng was sentenced to death. It was also discovered during his eight years as head of the SFDA, Zheng had personally ordered the approval of more than 150,000 new medicines; by contrast, the U.S. FDA approves approximately 140 new medications per year. Most of those 150,000 medicines were manufactured by the eight pharmaceutical companies that bribed Zheng; one such unsafe medication, produced by the now-defunct Anhui Hua Yuan (华源) Company, resulted in 14 patient deaths and hundreds becoming permanently disabled. Zheng's former deputy was also convicted as an accomplice and given a two-year delayed death sentence. After these convictions, it was announced that a new system for unsafe food recall would be implemented by the end of 2007. By the end of August 2007, Xinhua reported that China had instituted new product recall and customer notification systems. Further customer protection measures were introduced in response to the 2008 Chinese milk scandal. A Xinhua article from September 2008 lists the following information as "Lessons Learned" from the milk scandal: "Sanlu, the center of the scandal, provided a bad example of crisis management. When it was first exposed, Sanlu refused to take the blame and passed the buck to innocent dairy farmers, which ignited great anger nationwide. A further official investigation showed Sanlu had lied about its contaminated baby formula for months while thousands of infants got sick and at least three died. Sanlu didn't openly admit its products were toxic until Sept. 11. It eventually recalled baby formula manufactured on and before Aug. 6." In the United States Federal government All of the food recalls executed by companies in the United States and Canada were voluntary, i.e. not mandated by any government agency. In the United States, prior to the recall, the Food and Drug Administration did not keep pet foods under the same level of protection and safety ensurance as food intended for