This is not one of my usual blog posts, but having two little kids who use milk powder everyday, it's too close to the heart and too important. You probably heard about the recent milk powder scandal in China: Many milk products contain Melamine which can cause severe damage, e.g. kidney failure.

The Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety (a government body) has been testing several dairy products: Here is a link where you can get the latest informations about safe and contaminated products.

Apart from some Chinese companies, this also lists one product of corporate giant Nestle. Only a small amount of Melamine has been found in the Nestle product, but this is still worrying.

About Melamine

Here some excerpts from the Wikipedia article:

[...]

Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.^{[15][20][21][22][23]}

[...]

Melamine may have been added to fool government quality tests after water was added to fraudulently increase the milk's volume. The adulterant melamine was added to the milk to allow the company to dilute the milk with water and circumvent government regulations, since melamine will cause a false increase in the measurement of protein by increasing the nitrogen levels in the milk.^{[51] [52]} Officials estimate that about 20 percent of the dairy companies tested in China sell products tainted with melamine.^[53]

About the milk scandal

First I found it quite unbelievable how people can be so scroupulous too sell contaminated milk, and this is not the first time in China, just in 2004 some people sold fake milk powder which killed dozends of infants.

This time it seems sellers of fresh milk added some Melamine to their milk, so it seems to have a higher protein level. They could dilute the milk and sell therefore higher quantities.

The factories who bought the fresh milk and used this to produce milk powder and other dairy products, either didn't check for Melamine, didn't bother to check or just didn't care.

So far 19 people have been arrested all involved in the supply chain of raw milk. Nobody from the companies who sold the milk has been arrested so far. [Wikipedia]

Comments

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Lea     |208.106.107.xxx |2008-09-22 16:54:00 This is rather disturbing to know, but unfortunately not terribly surprising. Very sad indeed. Stumbled this and hope others will read it. Have a great day! Reply | Quote 1   0

Thomas Law  - How about F&N Products   |115.132.101.xxx |2008-09-24 03:24:10 F&N products also are milk...check out the article http://consumersrighteousness.blogspot.com/ Reply | Quote 1   0

milag  - question about nestle product   |202.164.182.xxx |2008-09-24 09:09:43 hi! i'd like to ask what nestle product have you seen in the list that contains melamine? my baby is drinkig nan2 of nestle that's why i'm concerned. thanks! Reply | Quote 1   0

Thomas  - Nestle product with Melamine   |123.203.89.xxx |2008-09-24 09:37:34 Hi, Nestle Dairy Farm UHT Pure Milk 1L (Catering) has contained some Melamine. You can find this in the list with "Unsatisfactory results of testing of Melamine" on the 3rd page at the moment. Milk powder from Nestle has been tested to be safe! No need to worry about your baby. Reply | Quote 0   0

Mom in China   |222.90.74.xxx |2008-09-27 14:33:26 Thanks for the link to the list. My family is living in China at the moment and there is no information, of course. Dairy products are still on the shelves, sold at a discount. We didn't even know until we got calls from family back in the U.S. My 1-year old is breastfed thankfully, but we let her enjoy yogurt and ice cream all the time. We noticed her urine has had a foul odor and couldn't figure out why, until now. I think she's all cleansed out but we were scared for a moment. Reply | Quote 0   0

Thomas  - Cadbury removes products from Hong Kong shelves   |203.186.29.xxx |2008-09-30 06:10:26 The bad news for this milk scandal don't stop. Quite a few products of big brand names have been discovered to contain a dangerous level of Melamine. After Nestle and Heinz now Cadbury! Here is the official press release from the Hon.... This gets scarier every day. Reply | Quote 0   0

Eric Fong  - re: Nestle product with Melamine   |124.188.180.xxx |2008-10-10 05:24:30 During Jun/July/Aug. 2008, I have drink around 50 lit. of Nestle Dairy Farm Hi-Cal. Low Fat UHT milk purchase from Hunghom Psrk"n Shop, I have complain one carton of milk with about 30% residue content inside the carton. I have complaint to Nestle customer hotline in July, and replace 3 cartons, I did ask them to give a laboratory report. So far, I have not received any news, as I am now aware the milk has been contaminated by Melamine , Nestle are trying to cover the fact and did not inform Hong Kong health authority on the above issue. Please check for me and reply. Reply | Quote 1   0

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