Following the recent Chinese crime ring busted for selling more than $1 million worth of lamb that was actually rat meat and thousands of dead pigs floating in a Shanghai river, Chinese parents are left concerned on what food they offer their children.

There has been a rise in smuggling baby milk formula into the country as parents are increasingly wary of locally produced goods which is leading to a shortage of formula in many European countries.

Parents are now prepared to pay premium dollar to ensure they get internationally produced baby formula from either Europe or the U.S.

Qianqian Yu said she spent $1,800 when she was in the U.S. to buy enough to last a year-and-a-half, according to CBS news. She said of her return to China from the U.S. -- in which she had 19 suitcases of milk formula, "I heard the Americans checking my luggage," she said. "They were whispering 'Why are Chinese all so crazy'."

Qianqian attributes Beijing's polluted skies as proof that there is something wrong with Chinese produced formula. "When I was traveling in the U.S. I saw some cow ... living under blue skies, breathing clean air an eating clean grass. Milk from cows like this may be healthier than my (own) milk," she said.

Trust in Chinese-brand milk formula has been eroding since 2008. That's when six infants died after drinking milk contaminated with melamine, a toxic chemical used in plastics.

The 2008 incident soured China's $12.5 billion infant formula market for local firms and helped multinationals with established safety records to nearly double their market share in the past five years. Foreign brands now account for about half of total sales.

In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration said that no infant formula from China had been approved for import. But the F.D.A. advised consumers to be cautious since limited quantities might have found their way into some ethnic groceries.