FDA Sets Melamine Standard For Baby Formula
Federal food regulators said they have found a way to set a safety threshold for the industrial chemical melamine in baby formula that allows for higher levels than those found in U.S.-made batches of the product.
“A threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical is not present,” Food and Drug Administration officials said on Friday.
They insisted the formulas are safe.
Last week, FDA tests found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker.
The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, were analyzed several weeks ago.
In October, the FDA claimed it was unable to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.
But now the agency is confident in the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone, according to Dr. Stephen Sundlof, the FDA’s director of food safety. The announcement comes despite there being no new scientific studies since October that would give regulators more safety data.
Sundlof had no ready explanation for why the level was not set earlier.
Officials say the standard is the same as the one public health officials have set in Canada and China, but is 20 times higher than the most stringent level in Taiwan.
Melamine in infant formula first surfaced in China in September.
The lack of dual contamination was key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present, Sundlof said. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both contaminants.
He added that the agency still would not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid were also present.
Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine added to infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.
Sundlof said the levels were so low that they would not cause a health risk to infants.
"Parents using infant formula should continue using U.S.-manufactured infant formula. Switching away from one of these infant formulas to alternate diets or homemade formulas could result in infants not receiving the complete nutrition required for proper growth and development."
It was irresponsible of the FDA to assure the public that infant formula is safe based on tests of only 74 samples, especially since cyanuric acid is a byproduct of melamine, making it likely that they will be found together, according to a scientist for a national consumer group.
Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist with the Consumers Union in New York, called it a slippery slope of rationalization by FDA.
"FDA needs to get a handle on how widespread the problem is and, most important, if both these chemicals are occurring in any products. They just haven’t tested enough to know that yet."
Several members of Congress and the Illinois attorney general demanded a national recall earlier this week, something FDA said made no sense because it had no evidence suggesting that the formula would be dangerous for babies at the levels of contamination found.
The FDA produced these results on Wednesday after saying it made an error in its data: Mead Johnson’s Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron found melamine at levels of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million. Three tests of Nestle’s Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid.
A third major formula maker – Abbott Laboratories (ABT), whose brands include Similac ““ said that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.
An Abbott spokesman said those levels were below what FDA found in the other formulas and below any national safety guidelines.
Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson make more than 90 percent of all infant formula produced in the United States
On October 3, the agency had left the impression of a zero tolerance when it stated: "FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns."
The melamine contamination in U.S.-made formula had occurred during the manufacturing process, rather than intentionally, according to the FDA and other experts.
The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.
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