Bejing ? Authorities said today they were investigating how eggs distributed by a Chinese company came to be tainted with the same industrial chemical at the center of a dairy scandal that sickened tens of thousands of babies.

The move comes a day after a brand of chicken eggs produced by China’s Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group was pulled off some shelves in the country after Hong Kong food safety regulators found excessive levels of melamine in eggs of the same brand.

The government of Dalian, a northeastern port city where the company is based, said it would punish anyone found responsible for the contamination of the eggs, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The problems expose the inability of Chinese authorities to keep the food production process clean of the chemical at the center of a milk scandal that has prompted official vows to raise food safety standards.

The recalls also underscore fears that melamine contamination in China’s food chain may be more widespread than feared.