Monday, October 27, 2008

Melamine Contaminated Food Products


Melamine Contamination in China
(Updated: October 18, 2008)


Introduction


On September 12, 2008, in light of reports from China of infant formula contaminated with melamine, the FDA issued a Health Information Advisory to proactively reassure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States. That advisory also warned members of Asian communities in the United States that infant formula manufactured in China, possibly available for purchase at Asian markets, could pose a risk to infants. No Chinese manufacturers of infant formula have fulfilled the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States.

The FDA contacted the companies that manufacture infant formula for distribution in the United States and received information from the companies that they are not importing formula and do not source milk-based ingredients from China.

In addition, the FDA -– in conjunction with state and local officials – continues to check Asian markets for food items that are imported from China and that could contain a significant amount of milk or milk proteins.

The FDA has broadened its domestic and import sampling and testing of milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk or milk-derived ingredients from Chinese sources. FDA has recommended that consumers not consume certain products because of possible contamination with melamine. A list of those products is below.

Update on FDA’s Investigation










October 10, 2008: The FDA issued a product-specific Import Alert, which prevents certain products from entering U.S. commerce and provides another layer of protection to consumers. http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9931.html

FDA’s Warnings/Advisories



The FDA is advising consumers not to consume the following products because of possible melamine contamination:

  • Koala’s March Crème filled Cookies New!
  • YILI Brand Sour Milk Drink
  • YILI Brand Pure Milk Drink
  • Blue Cat Flavored Drinks
  • White Rabbit Candies
  • Mr. Brown Mandehling Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown Arabica Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown Caramel Macchiato Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown Mandheling Blend instant Coffee (2-in-1)
  • Mr. Brown Milk Tea (3-in-1)
  • Infant formula manufactured in China



Introduction


On September 12, 2008, in light of reports from China of infant formula contaminated with melamine, the FDA issued a Health Information Advisory to proactively reassure the American public that there is no known threat of contamination in infant formula manufactured by companies that have met the requirements to sell such products in the United States. That advisory also warned members of Asian communities in the United States that infant formula manufactured in China, possibly available for purchase at Asian markets, could pose a risk to infants. No Chinese manufacturers of infant formula have fulfilled the requirements to sell infant formula in the United States.

The FDA contacted the companies that manufacture infant formula for distribution in the United States and received information from the companies that they are not importing formula and do not source milk-based ingredients from China.

In addition, the FDA -– in conjunction with state and local officials – continues to check Asian markets for food items that are imported from China and that could contain a significant amount of milk or milk proteins.

The FDA has broadened its domestic and import sampling and testing of milk-derived ingredients and finished food products containing milk or milk-derived ingredients from Chinese sources. FDA has recommended that consumers not consume certain products because of possible contamination with melamine. A list of those products is below.

Update on FDA’s Investigation



October 10, 2008: The FDA issued a product-specific Import Alert, which prevents certain products from entering U.S. commerce and provides another layer of protection to consumers. http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9931.html

Company Recalls

FDA’s Interim Safety and Risk Assessment of Melamine and Melamine-Related Compounds in Food



*The FDA issued the results of its interim safety and risk assessment of melamine and melamine-related compounds in food, including infant formula. The purpose of the FDA interim safety/risk assessment was to identify the level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in food which would not raise public health concerns.

For infant formula, the safety/risk assessment concludes that at this time FDA is unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns. In large part, this is because of gaps in our scientific knowledge.

In food products other than infant formula, the safety/risk assessment concludes that levels of melamine and melamine-related compounds below 2.5 ppm do not raise public health concerns. This conclusion assumes a worst case exposure scenario in which 50% of the diet is contaminated at this level, and applies a 10-fold safety factor to the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) to account for uncertainties.

www.fda.gov

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RP bans melamine-tainted biscuit

The Department of Health on Monday banned Sunflower Crackers Blueberry Cream Sandwich after receiving a foreign report that the biscuit contains melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney failure.

The biscuit, manufactured in the Philippines by Croley Foods Manufacturing Corp., tested positive for melamine after undergoing tests conducted by the Hong Kong Center for Food Safety.

According to the center, Sunflower Crackers Blueberry Cream Sandwich has a high melamine content of 3.2 parts per million.

The center also found melamine in Select Fresh Brown Eggs (Extra Large, six pieces). This import from China also has been banned in Hong Kong. The Philippines’ Health department did not say if Select Fresh is sold in the local market.

“In the interest of public safety and well being of the people, the DOH hereby declares the above-identified product [Sunflower Crackers Blueberry Cream Sandwich] to be imminently injurious, unsafe or dangerous,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd said in an order.

“As such, it is hereby ordered banned from distribution, sale or offer for sale, or export. No firm, company or whatever entity shall buy, purchase or otherwise acquire said product for whatever reason,” he warned.

Duque called on law-enforcement agencies and local-government units to work with the Health department, Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) and Department of Trade and Industry in implementing the ban order on the Sunflower biscuit.

The bureau, which said it would resubmit Philippine-made biscuits to melamine-detection tests, earlier advised the public not to buy Sunflower crackers after it received the results of the Hong Kong test.

In the Philippines, a total of 204 milk and milk-based products have undergone bureau tests for possible melamine contamination. Health authorities have also conducted tests for melamine on canned meat products.

Six China-made products were found contaminated with alarming levels of melamine. These were milk products Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk, JollyCow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk 1 Liter and Mengniu Drink; and biscuit products Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit, Lotte B+W Koala Biscuit and Lotte Chocolate Snack Koala Biscuit.

The tests were conducted after the tainted-milk scare broke out when more than 53,000 children got sick in China upon intake of milk products that contained high levels of melamine. Four Chinese babies had died from melamine-contaminated milk.

Melamine reportedly was mixed with infant formula and other milk and milk-based products to elevate protein levels in such products. -- Rommel C. Lontayao

Source: www.yehey.com

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China urged to halt melamine in eggs

Sun Oct 26, 11:15 pm ET
Chicken eggs from China are shown at a market in Hong Kong November 23, 2006. Reuters – Chicken eggs from China are shown at a market in Hong Kong November 23, 2006. (Paul Yeung/Reuters)

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Hong Kong, a city in southern China, has asked Beijing to investigate how melamine, an industrial chemical found in tainted milk formula, turned up in Chinese chicken eggs, newspapers said on Monday.

Tests over the weekend detected melamine in eggs imported from Dalian in northeastern China at levels that were nearly twice the legal limit, further blighting the "made in China" label.

"We have contacted the mainland's food safety agency and hope they can do more to reduce the risk at the source," Health Secretary York Chow was reported as saying by local newspapers.

Tends of thousands of Chinese infants have fallen ill with kidney problems after consuming milk that had been mixed with the plastic-making industrial chemical to cheat quality tests. Four children died.

With weeks, tests found melamine in a variety of Chinese-made products from milk and chocolate bars to yoghurt exported around the world, including egg products in South Korea, leading to items being pulled from shop shelves.

Premier Wen Jiabao, at the closing of an Asia-Europe summit on Saturday, vowed China would do all it could to bring the quality of Chinese food products up to international standard.

But it has emerged that cyromazine, a derivative of melamine, is widely used in pesticides and animal feed in China, and experts say it is absorbed in plants as melamine and that the chemical is already in the human food chain.

However, no one knows how much melamine is absorbed into raw foods such as meat and vegetables, and experts are hoping Hong Kong's tests on vegetables and meat will shed some light.

"Since some animal feed used on the mainland might have been polluted by melamine, our tests will target more on meat imported from the mainland," Chow was quoted as saying.

"As we have found melamine in eggs, we shall also test chicken meat and we shall also look at offal, for example chicken kidneys and pig kidneys."

Hong Kong said last week it would test meat, vegetables and processed food for melamine, a move that underlines concerns about food safety in the former British colony which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

It imposed a cap on melamine in September, restricting it to no more than 2.5 milligrams per kilogram, while melamine found in food meant for children under three and lactating mothers should be no higher than one mg per kg.

The level of melamine found in the eggs was 4.7 mg per kg, the newspapers said.

China has been swept by a series of food- and product-safety scandals involving goods as diverse as toys, tires, toothpaste, pet food, fish, beans, dumplings and baby cribs.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Wednesday it planned to crack down on its Chinese suppliers, enforcing stricter quality and environmental standards.

www.news.yahoo.com

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