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UN urges Bangladesh vigilance over melamine. More milk products tainted

admin — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:23:36 +0000

UN urges Bangladesh vigilance over melamine

11 hours ago

DHAKA (AFP) — UN agencies Wednesday urged Bangladesh to act quickly to determine the extent of melamine contamination in milk products in the nation after criticism over its testing methods.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Health Organisation and the UN Children’s Fund in Bangladesh said they were willing to offer the use of “internationally certified” laboratories to test for the industrial chemical.


Growing numbers of countries have pulled mostly China-made milk products from shelves after tests found they were tainted with melamine, which is normally used to make plastics and fertilisers.
Contaminated powdered milk has caused the deaths of four children and sickened more than 53,000 others in China in a weeks-long scandal.
Melamine is believed to have been added to milk in China to give it the appearance of higher protein content.
The three agencies said Bangladesh should remove all milk products from the market as soon as tests confirm their levels of melamine which can cause kidney stones and related illnesses in infants.
The statement comes two days after a top government official said results showing melamine in seven brands of powdered milk were "inconclusive and confusing."
Three major international dairy firms, Nestle, Arla -- which produces Dano products -- and New Zealand Dairy Products have challenged the Bangladeshi results and say their products are safe.

The initial tests, carried out by Dhaka University's chemistry department, were contradicted by results from two other local labs, which found melamine in only one of the brands tested.

Singapore finds five more tainted Chinese foods

admin — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:14:11 +0000

SINGAPORE (AP): Singapore has found traces of a toxic chemical in five more Chinese-made food products, including the first non-dairy items that had milk as an ingredient, authorities said Wednesday.

Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority, known as AVA, said that samples of Dutch Lady-brand banana and honeydew flavored milk, Silang-brand potato crackers and two kinds of puffed rice balls imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

The crackers and rice balls were the first non-dairy products found with melamine, though they listed milk as ingredients.

Last week, authorities suspended the sale and import of all Chinese milk and dairy products after finding melamine in samples of a Yili-brand yogurt bar, Dutch Lady-brand strawberry milk, and White Rabbit-brand chewy candy manufactured in China.

The ban includes milk, ice cream, yogurt, chocolate, biscuits and candy, as well as any other products containing milk from China as an ingredient.

Melamine has been blamed in China for four infant deaths and illnesses in 54,000 who drank tainted milk powder. Chinese diary products have been banned by countries throughout Asia.

Melamine Crisis hits more global companies

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:39:11 +0000

Tainted milk crisis hits more global companies

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Sep 27, 7:35 AM (ET)

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

(AP) A Philippine police officer carries packs of White Rabbit candies as it was ordered withdrawn aside…

SHANGHAI, China (AP) – Snackers, beware: Your favorite chocolate or creamy treats might contain milk contaminated with melamine.

The list of companies facing potential recalls grew Friday as reports of foods tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which has been blamed in the deaths of four Chinese infants, spread to a widening range of products.

Food companies around the globe are rushing to assess their products and in some cases setting new strategies to prevent problems.

“We have to think about any processed food with milk or protein in it,” said James Rice, a food industry veteran who is now China country manager for Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), the world’s largest meat processor.

(AP) Han Kwan-woo, an official of Korea Food and Drug Administration, shows packages of recalled…
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While his company is not affected, for others “that includes biscuits, cake mix, energy bars, anything that should have protein in it,” he said.

Many food companies already were taking special precautions before Chinese milk suppliers were found to be adding melamine to watered-down milk to boost its apparent protein content. The chemical, which is high in nitrogen, can fool tests aimed at verifying protein levels. The compromised dairy products are blamed for sickening 54,000 children.

Some companies learned the need for extra diligence in China the hard way, during a spate of scandals last year from unsafe foods and toothpaste to melamine-laced ingredients in pet food.

But many continued to disregard the risks, said Jeremy Haft, a businessman who runs factories in China in a variety of industries, including medical products, clothing and building supplies.

“I don’t think much was learned from the recalls of a year ago,” said Haft, who has written of his experiences in a book, “All the Tea in China.”

Tokyo-headquartered Lotte Group, a major snack maker, got caught up in the storm Friday after its popular chocolate-filled Koala cookies were recalled in Hong Kong and Macau because of melamine contamination.

Packages of the cookies, still on sale in Shanghai, list whole milk powder as an ingredient.

“We will look deeply into all the details of the manufacturing process,” said Kayh Kim, manager of Lotte China Food’s planning department in Beijing. “We really don’t want to lose our customers’ confidence.”

In Tokyo, a company spokeswoman said Lotte products sold in Japan are not made with Chinese dairy ingredients.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai-based maker of White Rabbit, a popular vanilla-flavored toffee, said it stopped domestic sales after the Hong Kong government’s Center for Food Safety said the candy contained more than six times the legal limit of melamine.

That followed White Rabbit recalls in Britain, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia.

When rumors of melamine-related recalls of Oreos and other sweets spread by phone text messages and on the Internet earlier this week, Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) hastened to reassure customers that none of its Oreo-brand products contain milk powder from China.

Oreo fillings contain no milk, while Oreo cookies with icing on them use milk powder from Australia, it said. “Regardless of where they are produced, Kraft products are always held to the highest quality and safety standards,” the company said.

As they expand operations in China, targeting its potential market of 1.3 billion people, many foreign-brand food companies still rely heavily on local partners for quality control, experts say.

New Zealand’s dairy cooperative Fonterra discovered the implications when its local partner, Sanlu Group Co., failed to take quick action after Chinese doctors reported that babies drinking its infant formula were developing kidney stones.

“The problem was that Fonterra, right from the start, had no control over what was going on,” said Bruce McLaughlin, CEO of Sinogie Consulting in Shanghai, which conducts market research and investigations.

“The most important thing is that if you’re going to make an investment and have your name tied up with it, you have to have control over what’s going on,” McLaughlin said.

For some, that may mean going it alone.

Chocolate maker Barry Callebaut, the world’s leading producer of cocoa, chocolate and confectionary products, set up its own factory west of Shanghai earlier this year. The quality control staff report directly to the Swiss company’s CEO.

The factory is testing milk products from all local suppliers, setting aside any from domestic sources until it is confirmed safe, said Gaby Tschofen, the company’s vice president for corporate communications.

A decision by Japanese beer maker Asahi Breweries Ltd. to set up its own dairy farm in China is proving fortuitous: the company’s milk, which went on sale only this month, is selling fast amid the melamine scare.

Asahi Green Source Farm, a venture with fellow Japanese companies Itochu Corp. and Sumitomo Corp., is stocked with more than 1,000 dairy cows from Australia and New Zealand, said Chen Na, a marketing department staffer.

“We already realized the importance of the source of raw milk, since it’s easy for trouble to crop up in a booming market, and we have made every effort to control the manufacturing process for liquid milk production,” she said. “Better safe than sorry.”

—

Associated Press researcher Ji Chen contributed to this report.

Melamine found in baby cereral and other products, banned list

admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:57:31 +0000

Baby cereal latest problem in China milk scandal

(09-26) 17:35 PDT BEIJING, China (AP) –
The list of products caught in China’s tainted milk scandal grew Friday to include baby cereal in Hong Kong and snack foods in Japan, while Taiwan reported three children and a mother with kidney stones in the island’s first cases possibly linked to the crisis.

The Japanese government also said it had suspended imports of milk and milk products from China, where some 54,000 children have developed kidney stones or other illnesses after drinking baby formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. Four deaths have been blamed on the tainted milk.

The latest problematic foods were Heinz baby cereal and Silang House steamed potato wasabi crackers. The Hong Kong government said in a statement Friday it found traces of melamine in the products, which were both made in mainland China.

Hong Kong urged the manufacturers to stop selling the products in the Chinese territory. Pittsburgh, Pa.-based Heinz ordered a recall of the baby cereal as a precautionary measure following the government’s announcement, it said in a statement on its Web site.

Hundreds of international food companies have set up operations in China in recent years, exposing them to the country’s notorious product safety problems. Melamine-tainted products have turned up in an increasing number of Chinese-made exports abroad – from candies to yogurt to rice balls.

In Japan, the Marudai Food Co. pulled its cream buns, meat buns and creamed corn crepes from supermarkets a week ago and tests have found traces of contamination in several products, Japanese Health and Welfare Ministry official Mina Kojima said Friday.

So far, there were no reports of health problems stemming from the contamination, she said. Marudai has sold more than 300,000 of the products, most of which are believed to have been consumed.

News of that contamination came after the Chinese territory of Macau said it detected melamine at 24 times the safety limit in products from another Japan-based company, Koala’s March cookies made by Lotte China Foods Co. The company is a member of a Tokyo-based conglomerate, Lotte Group.

An official at Lotte (China) Investment Co. Ltd. in Shanghai said Friday previous inspections had not shown any problems.

“But now that it tested positive in Macau, we find it necessary to do the inspections all over again,” said Guo Hongming, a legal assistant in Lotte Shanghai’s corporate planning department.

Some Hong Kong supermarkets pulled the chocolate-filled cookies off shelves Friday after the announcement by Macau authorities late Thursday. Cookie packages list whole milk powder as an ingredient.

Only some types of milk powder and milk have been recalled in mainland China so far, but the maker of one of China’s most popular candies said Friday it had halted sales because of suspected melamine contamination. White Rabbit candies have already been pulled from shelves around Asia and in Britain.

Ge Junjie, a vice president of Bright Foods (Group) Co. Ltd., was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency that the company was waiting for test results from the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

“We decided to halt all sales of White Rabbit candy, although the test results have not yet come out,” Ge said. Bright Foods’ subsidiary Guangshengyuan produces White Rabbit.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese authorities reported that three children who consumed Chinese milk formula had developed kidney stones, and doctors were checking whether their illnesses were linked to tainted products.

The two 3-year-old girls and a 1-year-old boy traveled frequently between Taiwan and China with their parents, said Liu Yi-lien, health chief of the Ilan county government in eastern Taiwan. One of the girls’ mothers also has kidney stones, he said.

“They have all consumed Chinese milk, but more tests are needed to establish the link to their kidney stones,” Liu said.

The cases are the first reports of illnesses on the island that could be related to tainted Chinese milk products. Six children have also become ill from melamine-tainted products in the Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.

Still, the World Health Organization said it did not expect the number of victims to grow dramatically.

WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said public awareness of the issue meant many young children were getting health checks and avoiding tainted products.

“I think we will see some more cases, but not the high number like so far,” he said. “I think the recall and more thorough investigation and testing are now starting to eliminate some of these contaminated products from coming out to the public.”

On Thursday, the European Union banned imports of baby food containing Chinese milk. The move by the 27-nation EU adds to the growing list of countries that have banned or recalled Chinese dairy products because of the contamination.

Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses, the chemical – used to make plastics and fertilizer – can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.

Chinese suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have diluted their milk while adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein levels.

___

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo, Dikky Sinn in Hong Kong and Annie Huang in Taipei contributed to this report.

This is a great time to try this!

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What exactly does Melamine do inside the body? What are the effects of Melamine?

admin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 22:47:42 +0000

What does melamine do in the body?
A Cornell veterinarian told us last year that melamine is not considered to be “a very toxic compound,” but can result in kidney stones and kidney failure especially in small animals. Investigators found crystals made up of melamine and its byproducts in the urine and kidneys of in the dogs and cats that were poisoned last year. Because it formed crystals in the body and was not fully dissolved in urine, the melamine gathered in the kidney, gunking up the organ and forming stones. The pets that died suffered acute kidney failure.

This is what is happening to small children who have ingested melamine.
Who is responsible for this tragedy?

Melamine

By Kate Pickert Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2008

Sanlu, China’s biggest milk powder producer recalled 700 tons of milk powder after inspectors found the industrial contaminant, melamine in some of its packages.

China Photos / Getty

Melamine, the cheap compound used to bulk up baby formula in China that has sickened at least 1,200 babies across the country and killed at least two so far, once had a much less dubious purpose and, in fact, can be found in some form in most American homes.

Composed of nitrogen, carbon and hydrogen, the compound was invented in the 1830s by a German scientist and came into fashion as a material used to make plastics and laminates in the late 1930s. When combined with formaldehyde and exposed to extreme heat, melamine creates a moldable material that, when cooled, is virtually unbreakable and dishwasher-safe.
This made it the durable dishware of choice on some U.S. Navy ships during World War II.
After the war, designer Russel Wright and the St. Louis-based company Branchell, among others, developed molded dinnerware out of melamine, known as Melmac, designing sets under names like “Flair,” “Fortiflex” and “Color-Flyte.”
Throughout the 1950s, as Americans started buying processed foods and washing machines, clamoring for anything that conveyed “modern,” colorful melamine bowls and plates became mainstays in kitchens across the country. Unfortunately, Melmac tableware was prone to scratches and stains and so the dishes fell out of favor by the 1970s, as more resilient household plastics were phased in and families returned to ceramic, china and glass-made dishes.


In the past decade or so, Melmac has become popular again, with collectors and savvy eBay dealers selling Wright and Branchell pieces, and new designers using the material for retro-themed household items.
But as melamine experienced a resurgence in American kitchens, the material — in powdered form — has also come into use by certain unscrupulous food companies as a cheap and abundant filler substance for products ranging from livestock feed to pet food — and now, apparently, to baby formula. In some tests used to determine the nutritional value of a foodstuff, melamine shows up as a protein — so manufacturers can use the compound to make their products appear more nutritious.

Melamine is not toxic, but inside the body it can cause kidney stones and renal failure.

In 2007, material containing melamine — but labeled as wheat gluten and rice protein — was shipped from Chinese manufacturers to pet food companies in the U.S. and elsewhere. After a Canadian pet food company announced it was voluntarily recalling food that was sickening pets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fielded thousands of similar complaints across the U.S. Soon after, a myriad of pet foods contaminated with the tainted gluten and protein from China were recalled from the market, but not before thousands of pets had died from renal failure.

This month, under pressure from the New Zealand government, which had received complaints that a Chinese manufacturer was ignoring reports that its baby formula was sickening infants, China announced an investigation. Days later, it emerged that more than 1,000 babies were sick, many contracting kidney stones, after consuming melamine-tainted formula. At least two babies have died. On Sept. 13, China said that 19 people have been detained in the ensuing probe. Some critics, however, have suggested China knew about the link between the sick babies and malamine-laced formula months ago — well before the Summer Olympics in Beijing — but did not investigate until external pressure left them no choice.

I will continue to update this as I learn more and find more information for you.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ)
Melamine in Food Products Manufactured in China
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News reports and the World Health Organization (WHO) state that tens of thousands of infants in China who consumed infant formula contaminated with melamine are suffering from urinary tract stones, kidney damage, and kidney failure. For more information visit the Food and Drug Administration website.
What is melamine?

Melamine is a synthetic chemical with a variety of industrial uses including the production of resins and foams, cleaning products, fertilizers and pesticides. It does not occur naturally in food.
Why is melamine dangerous in food?

Animal studies have demonstrated that exposure to low levels of melamine produced no observable toxic effects. Exposures to high levels of melamine, or exposures to lower doses of melamine together with certain other chemicals, have caused urinary tract problems in animals. These have included urinary tract and kidney crystal and stone formation, and kidney failure. Exposures of animals to high doses of melamine over long time periods (years) have been associated with cancer of the bladder.
Should I be worried about food products purchased or consumed in the United States?

The United States does not allow melamine to be used as a food ingredient. Most reports of melamine in food products and of health problems related to melamine in food products have centered in China. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working together with local, state, federal, and international agencies to ensure the safety of the American food supply including broadening its domestic and import sampling and testing of milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk, such as candies, desserts, and beverages that could contain these ingredients from Chinese sources. As of October 6, 2008, FDA testing of milk- based products imported into the United States from China had found melamine contamination in only a few products (e.g., White Rabbit Creamy Candies and Mr. Brown’s coffee mixes). For current information on whether food products purchased in the U.S. might pose a concern about melamine, visit the Food and Drug Administration website.

Why are infants particularly affected?

Infants may be more affected than other people because formula is their primary food source and they therefore consume more melamine per unit of body weight than older children and adults who consume a variety of foods.
What should I do if I believe I or my child may already have been exposed to melamine, for example, during travel to China?

See a doctor right away if you or your infant has any of the following symptoms: stomach pain; vomiting; fever; irritability or excessive crying; blood, crystals, or particles in urine; painful urination; little or no urine; swelling of hands, feet, or face.
If I’m pregnant or breastfeeding and think I may have been exposed to melamine, would it be toxic to my baby?

If you are pregnant and have already ingested some of these listed products or you are breastfeeding while ingesting the listed products, discontinue their use. Effects on the unborn child are unknown. Melamine only stays in the body for a few days. The effects on the kidneys of the formula-fed infants in China are thought to result from continuous use of the products containing relatively high concentrations of melamine over many days.
Should my child or I be tested for melamine exposure?

Laboratory tests for melamine in blood serum and urine exist but are still investigational and not yet commercially available. Because many people are exposed to very small, nontoxic amounts of melamine from different sources in the environment and industry, detection of melamine in the body would not necessarily predict future illness.

How long does melamine stay in the body?

Scientists do not know exactly how long it takes the human body to eliminate melamine. Animal studies suggest that excretion is fairly rapid—for example, half of the total quantity of melamine consumed was eliminated in 4 hours in pigs and 3 hours in rats.

How should health care providers treat potential melamine exposures?

The most important action is to stop any ongoing exposure. Specific laboratory and imaging studies can be used based on the patient’s symptoms, for example to evaluate kidney function or urinary stones.

What is CDC’s advice for travelers to China?

Because of uncertainties related to dairy products in China at this time, CDC recommends that you do not consume any dairy products produced in China, including all brands of infant formula, milk or other drinks that contain milk products, food, such as yogurt or ice cream that could be milk-based or contain a large amount of milk or milk products. Many foods and drinks including candies, crackers, and desserts may contain milk or milk products. Ingredients on the food or drink label that suggest milk or milk products include milk, milk powder, whey, lactose, and casein. Additional advice for travelers is available in Travel Notice: Melamine in Chinese-Manufactured Infant Formula.