JAKARTA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Indonesia has temporarily banned imports of dairy products from China to ensure product safety following the tainted dairy products scandal in China, a health ministry official said on Tuesday.

"We have banned dairy products from China because they mostly don't have distribution permits," Lily Sulistyowati, the ministry's spokeswoman, said.

"The situation in China is severe. We don't want to get affected," she said.

China vowed to prevent toxic milk from reaching processors and export markets after an infant powder scandal that has made more than 54,000 children sick and mired the nation's trade reputation in fresh crisis.

Only one dairy product from China has a legal permit for distribution in Indonesia and the government has pulled out the product from the market for investigation, Sulistyowati said.

The Indonesian Food and Drugs Supervisory Agency has instructed all regional offices to pull out Chinese dairy products from stores for investigation, particularly in border areas, Sulistyowati said.

Fear has spread across the world about the safety of Chinese dairy products. Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Bangladesh, Gabon, Burundi and the Philippines are some of the countries testing Chinese dairy products or pulling them from the shelves altogether.

Thomas Darmawan, chairman of the Indonesia Food and Drinks Producers Association, said consumers should not panic as Chinese dairy products only account for a tiny amount of the country's dairy product imports.

"I hardly see imports of raw material for the making of dairy products from China," Darmawan said.

Indonesia imports about 250,000-300,000 tonnes of powdered milk, or between 60-75 percent of total milk consumption of 400,000 tonnes a year.

About 80 percent of dairy imports are from New Zealand and Australia while the rest is imported from Argentina, Canada and the European Union. (Reporting by Fitri Wulandari and Telly Nathalia, Editing by Sugita Katyal and Valerie Lee)

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