Melamine in White Rabbit Candy
Singapore finds melamine in White Rabbit candies; Chinese dairy products now banned across Asia and Africa
Melamine found in white rabbit candies
Looks like our earlier warning to not eat or drink anything with dairy content for the time being bears repeating. Singapore has now found traces of melamine in White Rabbit candies, wildly popular throughout Asia. The Straits Times reports:
Singapore’s Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said samples of White Rabbit-brand Creamy Candy imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
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Authorities on Friday suspended the sale and import of all Chinese milk and dairy products after finding melamine in samples of a Yili-brand yogurt bar and Dutch Lady-brand strawberry milk 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.
'Retailers and importers have been instructed to recall these products and withhold them from sale,' the AVA said in a statement.
'Consumers who have bought the affected products are advised not to consume them.'
This would be the second time in the short history of this blog that the quality of White Rabbit candies has been called into question. In July 2007, we reported that traces of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde were found in the candies which are produced in Shanghai by the Guan Sheng Yuan Group.
Meanwhile, the melamine scandal continues to widen around the region:
* Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety has found traces of melamine in Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk. And in the first reported case outside of the mainland, a three-and-a-half-year-old Hong Kong toddler has been diagnosed with kidney stones after being fed with Yili milk daily for the past 15 months.
* Public health officials in Taiwan have announced their findings of melamine-tainted instant coffee, milk tea and chicken-and-corn soup. The import of all such products into Taiwan has been banned with immediate effect, including instant coffee made by the popular Taiwan brand Mr Brown in China.
* In Japan, Marudai Food Co. issued a voluntary recall of five China-made products, saying they may contain the toxin melamine
* China ally Myanmar has announced it would "seize and destroy imported Chinese baby formula to safeguard against poisoning by the toxic chemical melamine".
* Brunei has ordered a blanket ban on all China-made milk products and dairy items.
* Malaysia has imposed a "level six import ban" on all Chinese dairy products.
* Bangladesh has also started on a crackdown and ban on three brands of Chinese-made milk powder.
* In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon were the first to impose bans on Chinese dairy products and Burundi has just joined them in the ban.
By Kenneth Tan in News
Melamine added to milk in China was an open secret.
Tainting of Milk Is Open Secret in China
ZHANGZHUANG, China — Before melamine-laced milk killed and sickened Chinese babies and led to recalls around the world, the routine spiking of milk with illicit substances was an open secret in China’s dairy regions, according to the accounts of farmers and others with knowledge of the industry.
Farmers here in Hebei province say in interviews that "protein powder" of often-uncertain origin has been employed for years as a cheap way to help the milk of undernourished cows fool dairy companies' quality checks. When the big companies caught on, some additive makers switched to toxic melamine -- which mimics protein in lab tests and can cause severe kidney damage -- to evade detection.
The routine spiking of milk with illicit substances was an open secret in China's dairy regions, according to farmers and people with knowledge of the industry.
Worries about the extent of contamination in China's food supply took on new urgency this weekend. After melamine was discovered in eggs in Hong Kong and mainland China, Beijing called for a nationwide crackdown to stop the contamination of animal feed, which authorities believe is the source of the melamine in eggs. The Agriculture Ministry said it has found melamine in 2.4% of the feed it has checked since mid-September, and has destroyed or confiscated more than 3,600 tons. The ministry called on local officials to "resolutely crush the dark dens" making and selling melamine for feed, saying it had found 238 and was investigating 278 more.
Melamine in feed hasn't led to the same kind of high concentrations of the chemical in eggs that were found when it was directly poured into milk -- thousands of parts per million in some cases. But amounts found in eggs have been above the safety standard China and several other countries established of 2.5 parts per million.
Egg sales are down, as is demand for chicken, and some farmers have begun slaughtering chickens they can no longer use. State media criticized food companies and government consumer-protection watchdogs for the lapses, as Beijing's response showed its alarm about a broadening threat to public confidence in food safety. Meanwhile, local officials in some areas were inspecting meat and considering widening the checks to farm-raised fish.
Manufacturers of melamine, an industrial chemical used in plastics, say they have noticed demand for their factory's scrap rising. In the small Hebei farming village of Zhangzhuang, residents say, melamine bought as scrap from a nearby factory often was stored on the pavement outside the village school before it was turned into a milk additive. "They kept it in big piles," says one village elder. Business in the powder became so brisk that villagers involved worked long hours and through holidays to meet demand, residents say.
China's biggest local seller of liquid milk, Mengniu Dairy Co., and multinational food company Nestlé SA both say they were aware that Chinese farmers and traders added unauthorized substances to raw milk, but that they didn't know melamine was among them. "We knew there was adulteration" going on for many years, says Zhao Yuanhua, Mengniu's spokeswoman. Among other common milk additives: a viscous yellow liquid containing fat and a combination of preservatives and antibiotics, known as "fresh-keeping liquid."
Click picture for larger view.
How did the melamine get into the milk?
More than 2,300 Chinese children remain hospitalized for melamine-related kidney problems, almost two months after the adulteration was publicly disclosed. At least three children died and tens of thousands of others were sickened. The national scandal has badly shaken Chinese consumers' faith in the safety of their food and reawakened fears abroad about the standards of Chinese products. Some brands of foods made with Chinese milk, such as candy, have been recalled as a precaution as far away as the U.S.
Melamine's chemical properties boost the apparent presence of protein in food. Actual protein powders -- which farmers are also prohibited from adding to raw milk -- use protein from ground animal parts, soy and other sources. Additive makers sometimes mix melamine with food additives such as the starch derivative maltodextrin, and repackage it for sale to dairy farmers without disclosing the ingredients.
Similarly, melamine has been mixed into animal feed by producers who want to make the feed seem as though it is higher in protein than it actually is. Yang Yong, part owner of a feed mill in Henan province says the practice is "very common" and hard to detect. He tries to choose trustworthy suppliers because "our testing can't pick it up," he says. "I can't guarantee there's no melamine in our feed."
Two dairy farmers from Hebei province, who described the milk-adulteration process but asked that that their names not be used, said additives have long helped farmers fool dairy-company tests for protein, fat content and freshness. Some farmers also add hydrogen peroxide, an antimicrobial, they said.
One of them, who has raised dairy cows for 20 years and is a farm-association leader, says salespeople for years would go from farm to farm in dairy-cow areas hawking "protein powder" for use as an additive. It would often be delivered in unmarked brown paper bags weighing 25 kilograms, or about 55 pounds, and costing 300 yuan to 400 yuan, or $44 to $60, he says.
About two years ago, farmers and Chinese authorities say, some manufacturers offered a new version of protein powder that they said could still fool dairies that had caught on to other protein additives. It contained melamine, but wasn't labeled as such. "Everyone just called it protein powder," says the second farmer. "Nowhere did it say it was melamine, " he says. "People never thought about it and never thought they needed to know more details."
Liu Wuqiang, another dairy farmer in Hebei, says, "farmers had no idea it was poisonous." He says, "We were just afraid that our milk would be returned and wasted." He says he never added anything to his milk.
Guan Huizhen, the sales manager at Hebei Guangtong Chemical Factory in a city near Zhangzhuang, says people have increasingly come looking for the factory's melamine scrap in recent years. "I never care why my customers buy it," Mr. Guan says.
Dozens of companies producing "protein powder" still advertise online, but many of the links have been shut down since the melamine scandal became public in early September.
One man who bought milk from farmers in northern Shaanxi province and sold it to dairy companies, Jiang Weisuo, went public last year with his fears about unauthorized substances, including antibiotics, being added to competitors' milk. He says he complained to regulators and dairy makers in 2005 and 2006. "They all said they would look into it, but there was never any result," he says. He then complained to state-run China Central Television, and his complaints spurred a report complete with footage of workers dumping additives into barrels of milk. Officials at the Shaanxi Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau confirmed Mr. Jiang's initial complaint, but an investigator said he failed to find evidence of wrongdoing.
Mengniu Dairy has essentially engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with suppliers, says Ms. Zhao, the spokeswoman. The firm has varied its tests to try to catch substances being used by farmers. "If we found that levels of dry matter in the milk suddenly rose, we would have to figure out whether some things had been added in," Ms. Zhao says. The company now checks for melamine as well as residues of pesticides, veterinary drugs and antibiotics.
To Nestlé, which uses Chinese milk in products sold almost entirely in China, the unauthorized addition of protein, fat, preservatives and antibiotics to milk "are well-known" problems in China and other developing countries, says Robin Tickle, a Nestlé spokesman. He says the company buys milk directly from producers who receive instructions from Nestlé.
The company uses more than 70 tests to assure the safety of Nestle milk. "We are on the permanent lookout for adulterants," Mr. Tickle says. Yet regulators in Hong Kong and Taiwan found very low levels of melamine in some Nestlé milk products in September, just after Nestlé itself started testing for melamine. Nestlé recalled the products, though the company said that the trace amounts posed no health risk.
Given the intense official attention now directed at milk supplies, people in the industry say they expect that melamine adulteration of milk has largely stopped. But they say the underlying problems for the food supply remain: flaws in farming methods and relatively lax supervision.
China's legions of small-scale dairy farmers are hard to police, and relatively few have the capital and know-how to adhere to good dairy-farming practices, says Qiao Fulong, a Beijing-based dairy consultant whose company, Beijing Farmunity Inc. offers technical advice to farmers. Adulteration has become "a common remedy," he says.
Complicating the challenge for milk is the relative newness of dairy cows to China as demand has surged in recent years. Mr. Qiao says that because many farmers don't know how to feed and care for dairy cows properly, the milk they produce often fails to meet the dairy companies' standards. Even farmers who do know what to feed the cows often choose cheaper feed options, Mr. Qiao says. Many feed the cows maize straw instead of corn stored in a silo, because it is cheaper -- but less likely to lead to good milk production.
—Kersten Zhang in Beijing and Ellen Zhu and Bai Lin in Shanghai contributed to this article.
Food Safety for the Holidays- Basic Food Safety 101
Food Prep Safety During the Holidays
Preventing foodborne illness is easy as…
1. Clean Wash hands and surfaces often.
2. Separate Don’t cross-contaminate.
3. Cook Cook to proper temperatures.
4. Chill Refrigerate promptly.
* No matter how tempting, don't taste raw cookie dough or cake batter if it contains raw eggs. Harmful bacteria can be lurking in the raw eggs... so wait until the goodies are cooked. The 2-Hour Rule Bring Out the Hibachi! * Grill hot dogs until they're steaming hot and hamburgers until they reach 160° F (71 ° C). Sassy Soups & Cider * Serve up hot soup, chili, or crab dip, but keep it all piping hot by placing these foods in insulated thermal containers. Keep the container closed until serving time. The Must-Chill Menu * If shrimp cocktail and cold dips are on the menu, serve them chilled on a bed of ice. The best thing about the holidays are the leftovers! * Reheat leftovers to 165° F (74° C). Use a food thermometer to check. Happy Thanksgiving! * Cook the turkey to 180° F (82° C). Insert the food thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh muscle without touching the bone to get an accurate reading. Food Safety While Pregnant
* Before going "bobbing for apples," an all-time favorite Halloween game, reduce the number of bacteria that might be present on apples and other raw fruits and vegetables by thoroughly rinsing them under running water. As an added precaution, use a produce brush to remove surface dirt.
* "Scare" bacteria away by keeping all perishable foods chilled until serving time. These include: finger sandwiches, cheese platters, fruit or tossed salads, cold pasta dishes with meat, poultry, or seafood, and cream pies or cakes with whipped-cream and cream-cheese frostings. Cold temperatures keep most harmful bacteria from multiplying.
Remember the 2-Hour Rule: Discard any perishables (foods that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if unrefrigerated) left out at room temperature for longer than two hours. When temperatures are above 90° F (32° C), discard food after one hour.
Note: See the Food Tampering fact sheet for how to detect and report product tampering.
Time for Tailgating
Keep food safe at a tailgating party by keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Here's how...
* Use a food thermometer to check the temperature. Heating foods to the right temperature for the proper amount of time kills harmful bacteria.
* Toast your team's victory with hot apple cider, but make sure the cider is pasteurized or otherwise treated to kill harmful bacteria. Unpasteurized cider may contain harmful bacteria. Be sure to read the label!
* Pack perishables, like cold fried chicken, directly from the refrigerator into the cooler - and include a cold pack. Keep all perishables chilled until serving time.
Here's how to handle them safely...
* Bring leftover sauces, soups, and gravies to a boil before serving.
* Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within two hours of eating. Remember the 2-Hour Rule: Don't leave food out at room temperature for more than two hours. On a hot day (90° F or higher), reduce this time to one hour.
Here's how to make your holiday feast safe...
* For even heating, cook stuffing separately to 165° F (74° C). Use a food thermometer to check.
Foods to avoid while pregnant. Food safety during Pregnancy
This is a list of suggestions only.
If you have eaten any of these, do not panic. This is just a suggested list. I ate hot dogs and blue cheese, mayonnaise and medium rare beef while pregnant and I have 3 healthy kids.
My opinion is that you just use common sense and enjoy your pregnancy and be aware of what you are eating. You can check here for the FDA lists of banned foods for updates. They have a search feature on their website, so you can look up any products you may be concerned about.
One thing I would be extra careful about right now, are any foods containing melamine.
New food items are being found daily, so please be aware of that.
(This is mostly outside the USA, but I have many visitors from around the world)
It's important to know which foods are safe to eat and which you need to avoid while pregnant.
Eat a safe pregnancy diet, and learn about safe food storage and handling by following these tips from the Clemson University Agricultural Extension.
Don't eat:
* Raw meat such as sushi, seafood, rare or uncooked beef, or poultry because of the risk of contamination with coliform bacteria, toxoplasmosis, and salmonella.
* Raw eggs, or foods containing raw egg such as Caesar dressing, mayonnaise, homemade ice cream or custard, unpasteurized eggnog, or Hollandaise sauce because raw eggs may be contaminated with salmonella.
* Soft cheese such as blue cheese, feta, Brie, Camambert, and Latin-American soft white cheeses such as queso blanco and queso fresco because they may harbor harmful bacteria.
* Fish containing accumulated levels of mercury in their fatty tissues such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish. When a pregnant woman consumes large amounts of mercury, her baby may suffer brain damage resulting in developmental delays (for example, delays in learning to walk or talk).
* Fish containing high levels of an industrial pollutant called polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in their fatty tissues such as bluefish and striped bass, and freshwater fish such as salmon, pike, trout, walleye from contaminated lakes and rivers. According to the March of Dimes, consumption of large amounts of PCBs by pregnant women is linked to decreased attention, memory, and IQ in their babies. Check with your local Health Department to determine which fish in your area are safe to eat.
Exercise Caution:
* According to the March of Dimes, deli meats have led to outbreaks of a form of food poisoning called Listeriosis, that is particularly harmful to fetuses. While the risk is low, you may want to thoroughly reheat deli meats to an internal temperature of 165 degrees (including hot dogs) or avoid them altogether.
* Minimize the amount of liver you eat. According to the March of Dimes, animal liver contains very high levels of vitamin A. While vitamin A is good for you, women who consume too much may risk a higher incidence of birth defects in their babies (however, studies are not conclusive). Since you're probably already taking prenatal vitamins and eating other vitamin A-containing foods, it's better to be safe and not consume liver on a regular basis. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recommended has that pregnant woman maintain their vitamin A intake around 8,000 IU and that vitamin A be taken in the form of beta-carotene, which is not considered toxic.
* According to the FDA, consumption of artificial sweeteners is safe for the general public. No studies show conclusively that it's harmful to consume artificial sweeteners during pregnancy. However, this is a personal decision, and for your peace of mind--and just to be on the safe side--you might decide to limit your consumption of artificial sweeteners during pregnancy. Instead, substitute fruit juice with sparkling water when you need a light, refreshing drink.
* According to a 1999 U.S. Health and Human Services press release, raw sprouts have led to some incidents of salmonella outbreaks. They advise that pregnant women eat sprouts that are cooked, or avoid eating them altogether.
Chocolate Pirate Gold Coins found with melamine (sold in some Costco’s)
Sherwood Gold Coins found with melamine
Consumer Advisory
Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins may be Contaminated with Melamine
Melamine – Certain products from China – 2008
Main Page | Report on Testing Results
OTTAWA, October 8, 2008 – The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is warning the public not to consume, distribute, or sell the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins described below. This product is being recalled due to positive test results for melamine conducted by the CFIA.
The affected product, Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins, is sold in 840g containers containing 240 pieces per container bearing UPC 0 36077 11240 7 and lot code 1928S1.
This product is sold nationally through Costco stores and may also have been sold in bulk packages or as individual pieces at various dollar and bulk stores across Canada.
If the original product identity and UPC code is not evident, consumers are advised to check with their retailer to determine if they have the affected product.
Retailers and distributors are advised to stop distributing Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins and to initiate a voluntary recall of this product. The CFIA will be working with the importers to remove the affected product from the marketplace.
There have been no reported illnesses associated with the consumption of these products.
Although the health risk associated with these products is considered to be low, the advisory is being issued as a result of the Government of Canada’s ongoing investigation into milk and milk-derived products sourced in/from China that may have been distributed in Canada.
The CFIA is monitoring the effectiveness of the recall.
Melamine is a chemical compound used in a number of commercial and industrial applications. Canada does not allow its use as a food ingredient.
For more information consumers and industry can call the CFIA at 1-800-442-2342 / TTY 1-800-465-7735 (8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday).
For information on receiving recalls by e-mail, or for other food safety facts, visit our web site at www.inspection.gc.ca.
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