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.
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.
Banned Foods.net Stay Informed
Chickens killed due to melamine scare and concerns
China melamine scandal causes slaughter of thousands of chickens
Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:45pm IST
By Ian Ransom
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese farmers, hurt by a spreading melamine scandal, slaughtered tens of thousands of chickens, state media said on Friday, as authorities in Shanghai began checks on feed producers for local fisheries.
Shanghai’s Livestock Office would check more than 100 feed producers in the city, and promised tests for the city’s seafood products if any feed were found to contain melamine, the Shanghai Daily newspaper said on Friday.
Melamine is a compound used in making plastic chairs and other things, but is often added to food to cheat nutrition tests.
At least four children died and tens of thousands were made ill from drinking milk formula adulterated with melamine this year.
The melamine scandal has since spread to other dairy products, sweets and chocolate, prompting recalls of Chinese-made food around the world.
A rash of cases involving melamine-tainted eggs exported to Hong Kong and South Korea, and sold in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou, have aroused fears of how prevalent the compound is in Chinese animal feed.
Melamine was banned in feed last year in the wake of a pet food scandal that was blamed for the deaths of dogs and cats in the United States last year, but has since been found in chicken feed used by major egg producers in northern China.
Public fears about food safety have seen egg prices plummet in local markets, and wholesalers refuse stock not carrying melamine inspection certificates.
Plunging demand in Beijing had prompted dozens of farmers in Baoding to slaughter tens of thousands of chickens in recent days, the Beijing Youth Daily said.
Amid the growing scandals, China's health ministry has urged officials to quickly fix the country's problem-ridden food safety system.
DISJOINTED
The World Health Organisation's food safety chief, Jorgen Schlundt, last week called China's food-safety system "disjointed" and said poor communications between ministries and agencies may have prolonged the outbreak of melamine poisoning.
"Coordinate and cooperate to investigate and punish major incidents," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Health Minister Chen Zhu as saying.
Some 2,390 children remain in hospital after suffering kidney stones and other complications from drinking melamine-tainted milk formula, the ministry reported on Wednesday.
At the peak in late September, up to 22,000 infants were in hospital on any one day after being found sick from melamine. ,
The overseas edition of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, said the scare had exposed long-standing failings in food-safety regulation.
"The right to safe food and appropriate nutrition is every citizen's right, but one after another food-safety incident is challenging this right," it said in a commentary.
"For this reason, food safety has become a national topic."
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley)
Animal Feed spiked with melamine, known secret for long time.
Animal feed spiked with melamine an ‘open secret’
in China: report
Last Updated: Thursday, October 30, 2008 | 9:06 AM
The Associated Press
A Chinese shopper pays cash for eggs at a market in Chengdu, southwest China, on Tuesday. (Color China Photo/Associated Press)
Melamine in feed in China
Animal feed producers in China commonly add the industrial chemical melamine to their products to make them appear higher in protein, state media reported Thursday, an indication that the scope of the country’s latest food safety scandal could extend beyond milk and eggs.
The practice of mixing melamine into animal feed is an “open secret” in the industry, the Nanfang Daily newspaper reported in an article that was republished on the websites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily.
Publicizing such a problem is rare in the Chinese media and appears to be a tacit admission by China’s central government that melamine contamination is widespread.
The news comes after four brands of Chinese eggs were found to be contaminated with melamine, which agriculture officials have speculated came from adulterated feed given to hens. The discovery of the tainted eggs followed on the heels of a similar crisis involving compromised dairy products that sent tens of thousands of children to the hospital and was linked to the deaths of four infants.
That scandal was triggered by dairy suppliers who added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics and fertilizer, to watered-down milk in order to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear rich in protein.
Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses, it can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.
It is forbidden to deliberately add melamine to food and animal feed, but its apparent prevalence highlights the inability of authorities to keep the food production process clean of toxins despite official vows to raise safety standards.
The Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine did not immediately respond to faxed requests for comment. Phones rang unanswered at the Ministry of Health.
Chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of excess melamine, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as “protein powder,” the Nanfang Daily report said, citing an unnamed chemical industry expert. Melamine is high in nitrogen, and most protein tests test for nitrogen levels.
The inexpensive powder was first used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then later in feed for livestock and poultry, the report said.
“The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal,” the newspaper said.
Melamine found in 4 brands of eggs
In the past week, melamine has been discovered in at least four brands of Chinese eggs, and officials in China’s largest city, Shanghai, said they had begun checks on all eggs sold in local markets.
No one has been sickened and it was not immediately clear how many eggs have been recalled.
China’s leading egg processor, Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group, was among the companies found to have tainted eggs, which were first identified by Hong Kong food safety regulators.
The reputation of Chinese products has in the past year come under fire after high levels of chemicals and additives were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to milk powder. In the milk scandal, Chinese authorities and a leading dairy producer delayed reporting the problem for months.
The Ministry of Health said Wednesday that 2,390 children remained hospitalized after drinking tainted milk, including one in serious condition, and 48,514 had been treated at hospitals and released.
Body Paint added to list with Teas and Cakes. Australian Melamine Recall List
Body Paint Joins Tea, Cake on Australian Melamine Recall List
Sexy body paint set banned , found to contain melamine
By Robert Fenner
Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) — Boxer Lovers Body Pen Set, described by its maker as the sensual way to indulge a sweet tooth, joined Orion cakes and Kirin tea on the list of products recalled in Australia because of contamination with the chemical melamine.
“Consumers who may have bought this product are advised not to consume this body paint, which should be disposed of safely,” Australia’s food safety regulator said in a statement.
Milk tainted with melamine, which is used to make plastics and tan leather, has been blamed for the deaths of four babies in China and the sickening of 53,000. China’s Sanlu Group Co. and 21 companies were found to sell contaminated dairy goods, leading to recalls or restrictions on products made with Chinese milk in more than two dozen countries from Japan to France.
The Australian importer of Boxer Lovers voluntarily recalled the chocolate-flavored body paint, the seventh product withdrawn from the market, following advice from Canadian and U.K. authorities, Food Standards Australia said.
Other products recalled by Australian importers include White Rabbit Creamy Candy, Kirin Milk Tea, Orion Tiramisu Italian cake, Dali Yuan brand first milk and Lotte Koala biscuits.
Cadbury Plc, the world's largest confectioner, recalled its Eclairs product last month and remains the only manufacturer to withdraw products in Australia because of melamine.
What exactly is melamine?
Melamine is an organic compound that is often combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a synthetic polymer which is fire resistant and heat tolerant. Melamine resin is a very versatile material with a highly stable structure. Uses for melamine include whiteboards, floor tiles, kitchenware, fire retardant fabrics, and commercial filters.
Fish, eggs, turtles, cows, sheep, poultry,pigs and what else is tainted with melamine?
Shanghai launches fisheries’ inspection fearing melamine contamination
30 Oct 2008, 1655 hrs IST, Saibal Dasgupta , TNN
BEIJING: Shanghai city authorities have launched a massive inspection in the fisheries industry out of fear that melamine contamination may
spread to the seafood industry. Melamine, a plastic industry chemical, has been found in milk and eggs in China resulting in wide-spread panic among consumers.
Shanghai’s Livestock Office today announced that its inspection programme will cover more than 100 feed producers. It will launch more detailed investigations into the quality of seafood if the feed given to fish is found to be contaminated with melamine.
Investigations into quality of eggs have revealed that the toxic chemical is present in the products of several poultry farms. Egg contamination came to light after health authorities in Hong Kong said on Monday that have found melamine in eggs supplied by one of the major hatcheries. But subsequent investigations showed that the problem exists in eggs produced by four different companies selling under different brands.
Meanwhile, the State media reported that a local government in northeast China has banned the media from publishing reports about the discovery of melamine-tainted eggs for weeks until the matter was exposed in Hong Kong late last week. The suppression of information has resulted in delay in official action to stop the spread of the contamination, sources said.
The discovery was made by the animal sanitation inspection department of Liaoning province, which was investigating the quality of animal feed produced by a local company, Mingxing Feed Company.
Melamine is believed to cause kidney stones in people who consume it beyond the permissible limits.
Melamine poisoning of milk has resulted in illness of over 50,000 infants and death to four of them in China so far. Melamine was used as adulteration material in order to boost the protein content of milk. However, eggs contaminated by melamine have not caused any reported illnesses so far.
Industry sources said that use of melamine, which was banned by a government order last year, is widespread in China. It is used in feed given to cows, sheep, poultry, pigs and fish. Even soft-shelled turtles and eels are also on the list, especially in southern China.
Use of melamine helps producers of animal feed enhance its protein content and dramatically boost profits, sources said. An important question in whether there has been any inspection on this matter
Lotte Koala biscuits and Julie’s crackers and Khong Guan biscuits found to contain melamine
According to Malaysiakini, Singapore found 17 types of biscuits from Malaysia to be tainted with melamine. Two of them are familiar names like Lotte Koala and Julie’s.
Also in the ban is Khong Guan biscuits.
Singapore has discovered toxic chemical melamine in 20 more products from China and Malaysia, taking its total to 33, authorities said.
Three Chinese products and 17 biscuit items from Malaysia were found to contain melamine, the industrial chemical at the centre of a toxic milk scandal which has rocked China’s dairy sector.
The affected items include popular products such as Lotte Koala biscuits and Julie’s crackers, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said in a statement seen on its website on Saturday.
Singapore has discovered toxic chemical melamine in 20 more products from China and Malaysia, taking its total to 33, authorities said.
I have taken the pdf file and made it more user friendly here.
Very disturbing the way the information is scattered and made more difficult to access.
Here is a chart with acceptable levels for melamine in biscuits and cookies and crackers.
Melamine in biscuits
Click to enlarge photo.
PUTRAJAYA: Khong Guan and Khian Guan brand biscuits have been found to contain excessive levels of melamine.
Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai said 18 out of the 47 products produced by the two manufacturers contained more than the permissible level of malamine, which is 2.5mg/kg or 2.5 parts per million (ppm).
He said the manufacturers had been instructed to recall all 18 biscuit products from the market.
“We have also requested that they voluntarily recall the rest of the products (the remaining 29),” he said.
Melamine found in body paints. Boxer Lovers Body Pen Set
Add body paint to the list!
A chocolate-flavoured body sex paint has been recalled from Australian shelves as authorities continue to crack down on melamine imports from China.
The paint, Boxer Lovers Body Pen Set,
Melamine found in body paint set
today joined the banned list alongside six other products including Lotte Koala Biscuits, Cadbury Eclairs, Kirin Milk Tea, Orion Tiramisu Italian Cake, Dali Yuan brand First Milk and White Rabbit Creamy Candy.
Melamine, a nitrogen-rich chemical used in the plastics industry, was discovered to be dangerously used by Chinese food manufacturers to give livestock feed and baby milk formulas the appearance of higher protein content.
Products contaminated with melamine, which is normally used in plastic products, have killed at least four children and made about 53,000 ill in mainland China.
The body paint's importer has voluntarily withdrawn the product.
Today's recall follows advice from Canadian and UK authorities whose test results show low levels of melamine in the sex paint product.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said those who had consumed the body paint product were not likely to be affected unless large quantities were consumed.
"Our advice is that consumers shouldn't consume it and if they have, it they should dispose of it safely,'' Ms Buchtmann said.
"It is a very low risk, you'd have to consume a high quantity over a long period of time to become ill.''
Ms Buchtmann said both FSANZ and international authorities' test results had established there was no evidence of melamine contamination of fruit and vegetables grown in China and imported to Australia as previous reports had suggested.
Melamine effects on the body, or what does Melamine do?
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?
Brief History of
Melamine
By Kate Pickert Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2008
melamine
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
* Printer-friendly version
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.
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