Food and Products banned from Melamine Scare

More new products you would not even expect found with melamine. This is truly a crisis.

I do not understand why there is not more in the news about this.

Taiwan bans melamine-tainted additive ammonium bicarbonate from China
Taiwan News, Website Editorial Staff
2008-10-18 04:12 PM

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A Chinese worker checks ingredients in milk products in a lab of Yili Industrial Group Co., one of China’s largest dairy producers, in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia region, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008. Italy has discovered two containers of milk and one of yogurt containing melamine, the industrial chemical that contaminated milk powder in China and hospitalized thousands of babies, the Health Ministry said Thursday. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
Associated Press

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Chinese workers operate product lines in a dairy factory of Mengniu Dairy Group Co., one of China’s largest dairy producers, in Hohhot, north China’s Inner Mongolia region, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2008. China’s dairy giants are trying to revive their brands and win back consumer confidence, saying melamine contamination problems that have tarnished the industry won’t resurface. Nearly 6,000 Chinese babies remain hospitalized with kidney problems caused by contaminated milk powder, the Health Ministry said, while dairy executives tried Thursday to restore confidence in the discredited industry with pledges of higher standards. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan)
Associated Press

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – The Department of Health (DOH) under the Executive Yuan announced today that the results of laboratory tests by local health bureaus found an abnormally high concentration of ammonium bicarbonate at 70 to 300ppm in food additives imported from China. The DOH immediately banned the import of food products containing ammonium bicarbonate from China, and ordered 12 counties and cities to pull all tainted products from shelves.Deputy Health Minister Cheng Shou-hsia (???) and Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) Director Steve Kuo (???) held a press conference today announcing that there is only one domestic chemical company importing contaminated additives from two of China-based chemical manufacturing companies in Hebei province and Fujian province. The DOH is currently tracking all the tainted products in the market, and pressing for a full public recall of all affected products. In the meantime, the DOH continues to update the World Health Organization (WHO) regarding the ammonium bicarbonate threat.

Cheng said that ammonium bicarbonate is a legal additive in Taiwan under the department’s Code of Food Additive Items Scope and Application Standards Limitations. He added that the reason why the DOH was able to find melamine in food additive was due to the recent melamine scare making several additives used as food ingredients highly questionable.

As to the question of whether there is health concern eating over the counter food products with ammonium bicarbonate, Cheng said that ammonium bicarbonate is used in small amount as food additives, which should not pose health threat to the public. A random test has been conducted, and melamine was not found in over-the-counter food products with the additive of ammonium bicarbonate.


Given that the melamine contamination has widened to affect not only milk powder and artificial non-dairy creamer, but also other types of good products and ingredients. Cheng held a cross-departmental meeting this afternoon, including the cabinet’s Consumer Protection Commission (CPC), the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Council of Agriculture, the Mainland Affairs Council, and the Ministry of Justice to come up with a plan in response to the increasing melamine-contaminated threat to appease consumer fears.

Given that food contamination “epidemics” and diseases know no borders, the need for Taiwan to secure participation in the WHO for Taiwan’s 23 million people should be the prime consideration for both Taiwan citizens and the other member countries of the WHO given the principle of universality of the human right to adequate health care or “Health for All.”

by Taiwan News, Website Editorial Staff

I love to go the Asian stores in my local area here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I always buy certain candies that I love there so I was very concerned if my chewy candy and chocolates
were part of the banned foods. I did manage to find a list from Singapore, and Malaysia.

I have included a USA today article about candy sold here in America.


Chinese candy sold in U.S. has harmful chemical

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
New Zealand says one of China’s most popular candies – a kind frequently sold at Asian markets in the United States – contains dangerous levels of the industrial chemical melamine.

In an extension of the broadening scandal in China over contaminated milk, testing by the New Zealand Food Safety Authority found 180 parts per million of melamine in White Rabbit Creamy Candies.

The agency’s website called the contamination “unacceptably high” and advises consumers to avoid the candy. Melamine levels were high enough to cause health problems, such as kidney stones, in some consumers, according to the agency.

That amount is about 1 milligram of melamine per candy, estimates Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition at New York University. “It’s not much, but it shouldn’t be there at all,” she says.

The candies are manufactured in Shanghai by Shanghai Guan Sheng Yuan Food.

News of the levels come as the scope of the milk adulteration scandal in China widened, with four infants dead from contaminated baby formula and at least another 53,000 sickened.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is sampling and testing White Rabbit Creamy Candies and other Chinese “milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk,” such as candies, desserts and beverages, says spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek. No contaminated products have been found on U.S. store shelves, she says.

The candy, a chewy, milky taffy, comes in small cylinders about half the size of a AA battery, wrapped in a white waxed paper. The ingredients are corn starch syrup, cane sugar, butter and milk.

Candy from China makes up just 0.7% of the candy sold in the United States, says Susan Snyder Smith of the National Confectioners Association in Vienna, Va. No figures are available for how much White Rabbit Creamy Candy is sold here.

On Monday, 99 Ranch, a large Asian supermarket chain with 26 stores on the West Coast, removed White Rabbit candies from its shelves, says spokeswoman Jennifer Tsao. Other Asian markets across the United States have also pulled the candies.

Consumers exposed to tiny amounts of melamine shouldn’t worry, says Angelika Tritscher of the World Health Organization. “Melamine at low doses is actually not considered to be very toxic.”

Melamine or its IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine, is an organic base with chemical formula C3H6N6. Since it is only slightly soluble in water, when it is illegally used in milk industry, melamine will be dissolved in formaldehyde (carcinogenic/cancer causing) or other organic solvents before mixing into the milk!
Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas tests estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine.

Although melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid (at times, present in drinking water) it can cause fatal kidney stones/urinary problems. Below is some references of the melamine tainted food. All these references are received via email and I am consolidating for the sharing purpose. I urge all the food authorities to work with WHO to compile and share a complete list of banned food or recalled melamine tainted products to protect the life of innocent consumers.

According to an email received, the following food are recalled from shelves in Singapore:
1 M&M
2 Snickers
3 Mento’s Yoghurt Bottle
4 Dove Chocolate
5 Oreo Wafer Sticks
6 Dutchlady Sterilised Milk
7 Wall’s all natural mango
8 Mini Poppers Ice Cream
9 Magnum Ice Cream
10 Moo Sandwich Ice Cream
11 Mini Cornetto
12 Youcan Ice Cream

A longer list that includes brands and descriptions of melamine tainted food products recalled provided by Food Technology Research Centre in MARDI, Malaysia:
1 BAIRONG GRAPE CREAM CRACKERS
2 DOVE H/NUT ALM & RAISIN CHOC
3 DOVE HAZELNUT CHOC
4 DOVE MILK CHOCOLATE
5 Dreyers Choc Cake Ice Cream 887ml
6 Dreyers Choc Cake Ice Cream 887ml
7 Dreyers Cookie & Cream Ice Cream 887ml
8 Dreyers Cookie & Cream Ice Cream 887ml
9 Dreyers Mint Chip Ice Cream 887ml
10 Dreyers Mint Chip Ice Cream 887ml
11 Dreyers Rocky Road Ice Cream 887ml
12 Dreyers Rocky Road Ice Cream 887ml
13 Dreyers Strawberry Ice Cream 887ml
14 Dreyers Strawberry Ice Cream 887ml
15 Dreyers Toast Almond Ice Cream 887ml
16 Dreyers Toast Almond Ice Cream 887ml
17 Dreyers Vanilla Ice Cream 887ml
18 Dreyers Vanilla Ice Cream 887ml
19 DUTCH LADY STER M LF BANANA
20 DUTCH LADY STER MK LF PLAIN
21 DUTCH LADY STER MK LF CHOC
22 DUTCH LADY STER MK LF SBERRY
23 DUTCH LADY STER M LF HNYDEW
24 DUTCH LADY STER M LF HNYDEW
25 DUTCH LADY STER MILK PLAIN
26 DUTCH LADY STER MK LF CHOC
27 DUTCH LADY STER MK LF SBERRY
28 DUTCH LADY STER M LF BANANA
29 FIRST CHOICE CALCIUM SESAME CRACKERS
30 FIRST CHOICE CALCIUM SALTINE CRACKERS
31 FIRST CHOICE CALCIUM S ONION CRACKERS
32 FIRST CHOICE CALCIUM SEAWEED CRACKERS
33 GINBIS PARTY ANIMAL BUTTER BISC
34 GINBIS PARTY ANIMAL SEAWEED BIS
35 GINBIS PARTY ANIMAL CNUT
36 GINBIS ANIMAL BISCUIT
37 Koala Cocoa Biscuit 40g
38 Koala Cocoa Biscuit 40g
39 KRAFT OREO WAFER STICKS 18S
40 KRAFT OREO WAFER STICKS 5S
41 KRAFT OREO W/STICK WH CHOC 18S
42 KRAFT OREO W/STICK WH CHOC 5S
43 Lotte Koala Cocoa Funpack 210g
44 Lotte Koala Cocoa Funpack 210g
45 M & M Chocolate Peanut 200g
46 M & M Chocolate Peanut 200g
47 M&M CHOC CANDIES PLAIN%
48 M&M CHOC CANDIES PEANUT%
49 M&M CHOC CANDIES-PLAIN
50 M&M CHOC CANDIES-PEANUTS
51 M&M FUNSIZE MILK
52 M&M FUNSIZE PEANUT
53 M&M Chocolate Candies Plain 200g
54 M&M Chocolate Candies Plain 200g
55 MEIJI UJIKINTOKI 2978
56 MEIJI UMAKABO CHOCOLATE
57 MEIJI FAMILY PACK-GREEN TEA
58 MEIJI CHESTNUT & REDBEAN
59 MENTOS BOTTLE YOGHURT PROMO PK
60 MENTOS BOTTLE YOGHURT
61 Monmilk BREAKFAST MILK MALT
62 Monmilk BREAKFAST MILK WALNUT 6S
63 Monmilk BREAKFAST MILKMALT 6S
64 Monmilk CHOCOLATE MILK 6S
65 Monmilk COFFEE MILK 6S
66 Monmilk HI CAL LOW FAT
67 Monmilk HI CAL LOW FAT MILK
68 Monmilk HI CAL LOW FAT MILK 6S
69 Monmilk HI CAL MILK
70 Monmilk HI CAL MILK 6S
71 Monmilk MILK DELUXE 12S
72 Monmilk PURE MILK
73 Monmilk PURE MILK
74 Monmilk PURE MILK 6S
75 MonmilkBREAKFAST MILK WALNUT
76 NABISCO IN A BISKIT CHICKEN
77 NESTLE NES D/STICK MINI VANILLA
78 NESTLE NES DISTICK MINI CHOCO
79 NESTLE MILK & BERRY STARS CRL
80 NO FRILLS WAFER BLUEBERRY
81 NO FRILLS WAFER CHOCOLATE
82 NO FRILLS WAFER PEANUT
83 Orion Fresh Pie 138g
84 Orion Fresh Pie 138g
85 Orion Tiramisu 138g
86 Orion Tiramisu 138g
87 PEI TIAN CREAM BISCUIT
88 Rabbit Milk Sweet 150g
89 SILANG NATURAL OAT CRACKER
90 Snicker Candies Funsize 240g
91 Snicker Candies Funsize 240g
92 SNICKERS PEANUT CHOCOLATE%
93 SNICKERS SNACKSIZE BARS PNUT 5
94 TAKE ONE BABY BITES 24S
95 TAKE ONE BABY BITE CK VG
96 TAKE ONE BABY BITE CARROT
97 Vitasoy Chocolate Drink 4s 125ml
98 Vitasoy Chocolate Drink 4s 125ml
99 Vitasoy Melon Soya Bean Milk 4s 125ml
100 Vitasoy Melon Soya Bean Milk 4s 125ml
101 Vitasoy Q Soya Milk 4s 125ml
102 Vitasoy Q Soya Milk 4s 125ml
103 WANT WANT MILK CANDY
104 Want Want Flavoured Milk 250ml
105 Yili Hi Cal Low Fat Milk 1L
106 Yili Hi Cal Low Fat Milk 6s 250ml
107 Yili Hi Cal Milk 1L
108 Yili Hi Cal Milk 6s 250ml
109 Yili Pure Milk 1L
110 Yili Pure Milk 6s 250ml
111 Youcan Masterbean Multipack
112 Youcan Passion Multipack
113 Youcan Silk Sliced and Passion Strawberry
114 Youcan Stawberry Multipack
115 Youcan Traditional Sesame Multipack 4s
116 Youcan Unusual Multipack 4s

To identify the save milk products including milk powder/beverages/milk added food listed by Malaysia Health Ministry, please refer here.

Some simple tips:
1. Check the label of the milk products. They shall includes food that contained milk in smaller quantity as well like beverages, yogurt, cheese, soya milk or cookies.
2. If you have doubt of the products like cake, bread or candy, stop eating or buying them. Better be save and sorry.
3. Read, check out and keep abreast with the latest news.
4. If possible, breast fed your baby.
5. Search for alternative protein or buy safe raw food e.g. tofu or meats and cook/eat at home.

FDA bans milk-flavoured candy from China

Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has ordered its offices in border provinces, ports and airports to temporarily ban the entry of milk-flavoured toffee from China, for fear that the candy may possibly contain melamine, according to FDA Secretary-General Chatree Banchuen.

Milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine has sickened more than 54,000 children in China, while nearly 13,000 infants have been admitted to hospital, 104 in serious condition with kidney stones and agonising complications. Four babies died.

Mr Chatree said some consumers had expressed worries that the popular White Rabbit brand of milk-flavoured toffee imported from China with an edible inner wrapping may also contain melamine.

Because of the threat of additional contamination he ordered FDA officials on high alert and banned the import of the category of toffee candies for the time being. Testing of toffee samples in the market is being done to determine whether it can be safely consumed.

As for the infant formula milk powders that are available in Thailand’s markets, the FDA chief said he was confident that the products were free of melamine as most of the products were produced from raw materials imported from New Zealand and European countries.

However, dairy product for adults — including yogurt — may use milk powder from China, but less than 10 per cent, he said, which could pose minimal risk.

Mr Chatree also recommended that consumers avoid milk-flavoured toffee from China until the authorities complete their assessment and confirm that there is no contamination.

Melamine, usually used to make plastics and fertiliser, can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. It has been found in candy, buns and milk cartons sold internationally.

Since the scandal broke earlier this month, Bangladesh, Brunei, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan have placed at least partial import bans on Chinese dairy products.

FDA expands checks for Chinese milk products

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Food and Drug Administration has expanded its checks for possible melamine-contaminated food products from China to include candy and other items, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Chinese authorities are trying to roll back exports of milk products contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Infant formula tainted with the chemical has put nearly 13,000 Chinese babies into the hospital with painful kidney stones. Four have died.

“The FDA has expanded its Asian market sampling and import surveillance assignments to include additional products such as dairy-based candies, dairy-based desserts and other such products reported to the agency as having been tested in other countries and found positive for melamine or its analogs,” FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said by e-mail.

“We are testing and we continue to test the products. So far, the FDA has not found any positive samples in the products it has tested.”

Melamine, which can be used to cheat quality checks by mimicking food protein, has been found in candy, buns and carton milk sold to other countries and regions, unleashing fear in markets already shaken by a string of “made-in-China” scandals last year.

China has the world’s third-biggest dairy sector by volume, after India and the United States, the Chinese dairy products industry association recently estimated.

Japan, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan have already banned Chinese milk products.

The FDA says is has contacted the companies that make infant formula for distribution in the United States and been assured that none import formula or source materials from China.
Inspectors have also visited Chinese markets and stores to look for imported Chinese infant formula.

“Additionally, FDA is sampling and testing milk and milk-derived ingredients and finished food products that could contain these ingredients from Chinese sources. Milk-derived ingredients include whole milk powder, nonfat milk powder, whey powder, lactose powder and casein,” the agency said in a statement last week. (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Writing by Maggie Fox, Editing by Will Dunham)

Cookies With Melamine Found in Netherlands
By VOA News
30 September 2008

Officials in the Netherlands say two types of Chinese-made cookies have been found with elevated levels of the industrial chemical melamine.

The Dutch Food Safety Authority said Tuesday the chestnut and chocolate flavored cookies from the “Koala” brand are now off the market because of their melamine concentration.

New melamine-tainted products are being announced on an almost daily basis.

In South Korea, officials say the chemical was found in Nabisco Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches and in rice crackers made by the Chinese company, Danyang Day.

Since the melamine scandal broke in early September, more than 50 governments around the world have either banned or recalled Chinese-made products containing milk.

The World Health Organization has issued guidelines to help authorities decide on the health concerns of melamine levels in food.

Chinese authorities warned earlier this month that tons of melamine-contaminated milk powder were exported to Taiwan.

Already some 53,000 children have been sickened in China and four have died after drinking milk or milk products laced with the chemical.

China’s official Xinhua news agency says police in northern China have arrested 27 people in their investigation of the milk scandal.

Police tell Xinhua that melamine was being produced in underground plants and then sold to breeding farms and purchasing stations.

The chemical which is used in making plastic, is believed to have been used to make foods such as watered-down milk appear to be higher in protein.

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