• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Download full size image

Tests Confirm Melamine In Nestle Milk From China

Posted on: Monday, 22 September 2008, 13:12 CDT

Government officials from Hong Kong said on Sunday that tests have found melamine in Chinese-made Nestle brand milk.

The government reported that it found the industrial chemical in Nestle Dairy Farm's brand pure milk for catering use. It said Nestle’s division in the Chinese coastal city Qingdao made the milk.

However, the tests only found a small amount of melamine and the milk does not pose a serious health risk, according to the statement.

It recommended, however, the milk not be fed to young children.

In China, more than 6,200 infants have become sick and four babies have died after being fed melamine-laced baby formula. One toddler has become sick in Hong Kong - the first victim reported outside the Chinese mainland.

The government has launched high-profile efforts to show it is on top of the crisis, with Premier Wen Jiabao appearing on state-run television over the weekend to demand that public safety be put "at the top of the agenda."

Chinese dairy products have been pulled from stores around the country and in other places such as the self-governing Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau. Starbucks stopped offering milk in its 300 outlets in China.

On Sunday, Hong Kong's two major supermarket chains said they were recalling milk powder made by Swiss manufacturer Nestle after a newspaper reported it contains melamine.

Action was taken after Hong Kong's Apple Daily reported Sunday that tests it commissioned showed that Nestle milk powder made in China's northeastern Heilongjiang province contained melamine, said spokeswomen from PARKnSHOP and Wellcome.

Taiwanese company King Car Co. announced it has recalled packs of its Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea containing contaminated milk powder imported from China.

Japan and Singapore have recalled Chinese-made dairy products and the governments of Malaysia and Brunei announced bans on milk products from China even though neither country currently imports Chinese dairy items.

Recently, melamine has been found not only in powdered milk - used to make baby formula and other products - but also in liquid milk sold by China's biggest dairies.

Mostly used in making plastics, melamine is high in nitrogen, which registers as protein in tests of milk. Though health experts believe ingesting minute amounts poses no danger, melamine can cause kidney stones, which can lead to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.

Dairy farmers who sell milk to Chinese food companies are thought to have used melamine to disguise watered-down milk and fatten profit margins hurt by rising costs for feed, fuel and labor.

Lately, China has had its share of food and product safety scandals. Last year, the government promised to overhaul inspection procedures after exports of medicines, toys, pet food ingredients and other products killed and sickened people and pets in North and South America.

Melamine was found in both the dangerous pet food was and the milk.

Before the problem became public, several of the largest companies whose products have been recalled, such as Yili Industrial Group Co. and Mengniu Dairy Group Co., did not have government inspections. The government scrapped that exemption this past week.

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category