Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Melamine Contamination in Powdered Milk Test: 6,196 ppm


China powdered milk tests 2,500 times higher than FDA safe limit

By Gu Qing’er
The Epoch Times
Oct 8, 2008
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Stores emptying contaminated food products from China
A store employee removes melamine-tainted drinking products . (Getty Images)
Tainted Products from China

After sampling infant powdered milk and liquid milk products, China’s state quality inspection organ expanded its sampling of general and other formula powdered milk products. The results show that melamine contamination levels in Sanlu’s high iron and zinc formula exceeded 6,196 ppm.

China Issues Quality Inspection Report

According to results released by China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), the sampling was performed on the products from 154 manufacturers, equivalent to 70 percent of the market, and melamine contamination was found in 13 percent of the sampled manufacturers. Besides Sanlu brand, other products of another two manufacturers were also found containing over 5,000 ppm melamine.

Although the above results were only announced recently, general powdered milk products have already been taken off the shelves after the infant formula contamination was publicly announced.

U.S. FDA Announces Interim Melamine Safety Assessment

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today (October 3, 2008) issued the results of its interim safety and risk assessment of melamine and melamine-related compounds in food, including infant formula.”

Because there is no available research regarding infant ingestion of melamine, researchers are "currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns." In other words, no amount of melamine is currently considered safe in infant formula. It was also reported that adult diets under certain assumptions, can tolerate 2.5ppm.

Sanlu’s general powdered milk melamine level testd at a level almost 2,500 times higher than the interim FDA maximum safe level with certain assumptions.

Chinese Families Very Concerned

One Guangdong resident surnamed Li told Epoch Times that his whole family used to drink powdered milk products from Sanlu, “It nearly drove me mad when the incident was announced, my son had never been breast fed, he relied only on powdered milk.”

Li said, “Currently, I don’t know what I should I drink for my breakfast, all my family dare not to drink milk, actually, we don’t know what is safe for us to drink. We don’t even feel safe drinking soy bean milk from the street, so every night I soak some soy beans, and get up early the next morning to grind soy bean milk.”

After the milk contamination incident was announced, more and more ‘Made In China’ products have been found contaminated with melamine. On October 1, Russia banned all Chinese food imports containing dairy ingredients. According to the Russian health department, the banned products exceed 1,000.

A Russian official criticized their Chinese counterpart for not providing them with detailed information as fast as possible and complained the incident was like a chemical weapons terrorism attack.

Read original Chinese article

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

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