BS: Melamine in food - global problem

Subject: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 09:18 PM

I doubt anyone actually thought this problem would stay confined to China. Baked goods are turning up with this tainted milk as an ingredient, added when Chinese companies as contractors baked goods for the name-brand companies. On top of everything else going on, massive food recalls are going to make this, at best, a very peculiar autumn and holiday season. Looks like it's back to making everything from scratch for a lot of us.

SRS

---

From the Voice of America today:

Cookies With Melamine Found in Netherlands
By VOA News link
30 September 2008

Officials in the Netherlands say two types of Chinese-made cookies have been found with elevated levels of the industrial chemical melamine.

The Dutch Food Safety Authority said Tuesday the chestnut and chocolate flavored cookies from the "Koala" brand are now off the market because of their melamine concentration.

New melamine-tainted products are being announced on an almost daily basis.

In South Korea, officials say the chemical was found in Nabisco Ritz cracker cheese sandwiches and in rice crackers made by the Chinese company, Danyang Day.

Since the melamine scandal broke in early September, more than 50 governments around the world have either banned or recalled Chinese-made products containing milk.

The World Health Organization has issued guidelines to help authorities decide on the health concerns of melamine levels in food.

Chinese authorities warned earlier this month that tons of melamine-contaminated milk powder were exported to Taiwan.

Already some 53,000 children have been sickened in China and four have died after drinking milk or milk products laced with the chemical.

China's official Xinhua news agency says police in northern China have arrested 27 people in their investigation of the milk scandal.

Police tell Xinhua that melamine was being produced in underground plants and then sold to breeding farms and purchasing stations.

The chemical which is used in making plastic, is believed to have been used to make foods such as watered-down milk appear to be higher in protein.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: mg
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 09:31 PM

Cadbury chocolates...that stuns me. I can see some cheap dollar store food..but well known brands..after they know there is a problem. How could you possibly with any brains at all trust food from there? And believe any testing that was done. How could they not have tested and tested? Beyond me. mg

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 09:35 PM

Exactly.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 10:14 PM

Ah - the delights of Global Trade!

I've been thinking of starting the GESL Movement.

Grow, Eat, Shit Locally, I reckon.

Me, I'm glad I don't understand this Economics stuff at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 10:42 PM

That was me.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 10:47 PM

What I said was, "Stop buying Chinese goods." Pweople who do so are sending jobs from their own countries OUT of the country. Wonder why we got problems?

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Bert
Date: 30 Sep 08 - 11:56 PM

That bears repeating Peace, "Stop buying Chinese goods."

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 07:09 AM

At Target you can buy dinner plates made from 100% melamine.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 10:59 AM

melamine
Noun
a colourless crystalline compound used in making synthetic resins [German Melamin]
Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006
========
When I was a kid, we ate off a set of dishes labeled Mel-Mac. They lasted for years and we never suffered any ill effects.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Goose Gander
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 11:14 AM

Melamine . . . I think we used to have dinner-ware made out of melamine. Is it the same stuff?

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Mr Happy
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 11:23 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: bobad
Date: 01 Oct 08 - 11:33 AM

From Wikipedia:

Toxicity

Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can cause fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble melamine cyanurate.[14] Melamine is described as being "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant." However, the toxic dose is on a par with common table salt with an LD50 of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.[15] FDA scientists explained that when melamine and cyanuric acid are absorbed into the bloodstream, they concentrate and interact in the urine-filled renal microtubules, then crystallize and form large numbers of round, yellow crystals, which in turn block and damage the renal cells that line the tubes, causing the kidneys to malfunction.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 08:12 AM

MFI kitchen units are likely to be surfaced with a white formica, which is made from, or with, Melamine.

How the bloody hell did anyone, anywhere, come to the conclusion that this stuff would form a useful ingredient in the food industry?

DON'T BUY CHINESE!! Kill two birds with one stone. Not only do you protect you and yours from unsafe, even lethal, products. You also cut down the number of polluting factories, and power stations the Chinese need to build.

BUT, and it's a big BUT!! How do you tell if a product you buy contains parts, or ingredients, made in China??

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Bee
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 08:39 AM

That's the problem - there's no requirement for food producers to list the country of origin of each ingredient. It looks like makers of end products have to be the ones to take responsibility for testing their purchased ingredients.

Of course, countries like China need to take responsible actions to ensure this kind of massive and dangerous fraud doesn't happen.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 05:06 PM

Having lived in China for 10 years the food contamination issues are no surprise and are linked to the endemic corruption that exists at many levels in Chinese business and industry. Making money is more important than safety. Local Govt officials are easily paid off.

The reason that this has become so big is that more and more production of what were once western brands is being done in China. Yes you can have joint ventures with an SOE (state owned enterprise) but though on paper you might have a 52% stake it is impossible to control. The Chinese partner can ensure that the foreigner is kept in the dark. Pretty easy to do as most foreign managers do not speak Chinese. Per se quality reporting issues can be kept hidden.

The Chinese press is state owned and controlled, so if they want to supress a story or investigation it can be easily done.

It will be interesting to see how the Boys in Beijing handle this one.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 05:58 PM

"Grow your own" is looking better all the time.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Ed T
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 08:49 PM

Not just milk, toys and pet food, but toxic clothes.

August 19, 2007
Toxic clothes from China

Here's a good reason to wash new clothes before putting them on infants and children: A New Zealand television station is reporting that "scientists found formaldehyde in woollen and cotton clothes at 500 times higher than is safe."

The majority of the clothes tested were made in China.

Little is known about how chemicals in clothing can affect people. But concern over pesticides and chemicals in fabric has sparked consumer interest in organic baby clothes that can be purchased everywhere from small boutiques to Target.

Formaldehyde is used to give clothes a "permanent press" look. Exposure to it in concentrations of 20 parts per million (ppm) can cause eye, skin and nasal irritations, respiratory problems, asthma and cancer.

    "A variety of new children and adult clothes were tested, including a girl's top, school shorts, a Spiderman T-shirt, and pajamas. The results ranged from 230 ppm to 18,000 ppm,"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8j6QaYK0_o&feature=user

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 09:18 PM

When we fitted out our house in Shanghai the chippies used plywood as the basis of the casings for the fitted wardrobes. We got them to change it all as the level of formaldahyde in the wood was very high, sore throats, itchy eyes. Our neighbours were not concerned at all, as it was cheap they left the windows open until the fumes decreased.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: michaelr
Date: 06 Oct 08 - 10:36 PM

Hey, just don't buy anything at all. You'll be safe as houses.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 07:15 AM

When I was a kid, my mum always washed all new clothes before first wear.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 08 - 10:09 AM

I still do. They have a starch "sizing" in them that makes them stiff and scratchy to wear.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 05:47 AM

Melamine scare spreads to Chinese vegies

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 09:27 AM

Setting aside pollution with melamine, which is clearly immoral and dangerous, there are other problems nobody talks about with respect to doing business with China.

China has a number of different 'dialects.' Wikipedia shows lists of 7 to 14. These dislects are mutually incomprehensible. (Other countries would call them different languages.) Clearly this makes for language barriers.

Chinese writing is based on pictures. A basic education calls for learning 2000 pictograms. (I'm pretty sure I recall that correctly, not that the exact number is crucial.)

Western languages use about 26 letters. We can alphatize documents, store and retrieve them.

But how do you store and retrieve info, guidelines and advice in a writing system that has at least 2000 elements?

My husband once had a corporation from Taiwan as a client. Their method of dealing with environmental reports was to open the door to a small, crowded room, throw in the new document and quickly slam the door.

Obviously there is a lot of scope for chicanery, crime, forgetting, confusion and honest mistakes in a system like that.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Ed T
Date: 08 Oct 08 - 12:07 PM

Why not just attach this picture to food produced in China?


http://www.inmagine.com/faa023/faa023001646-photo

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 09:30 AM

Japan detects pesticide in China beans

Japan ordered on Wednesday retailers to pull frozen beans from China off the shelves after a woman fell ill eating a product which had 34,500 times the legal limit of pesticide, officials said.

Japan's health ministry instructed retailers and importers nationwide to suspend sales of frozen green beans from a Chinese supplier.

A ministry official said the woman felt numb in her mouth on Sunday after eating a dish using the beans, which she had bought at a Tokyo supermarket.

...

"It is too early to determine" whether the beans were contaminated in China, said Kawamura, the government's spokesman.

The importer, Tokyo-based Nichirei Foods, said it sourced the beans from a company called Yantai Beihai Foodstuff in eastern Shandong province.

"We conducted an inspection on a sample of the beans before importing them but did not detect pesticides," a Nichirei Foods spokesman said.

The beans were grown in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China where there was no record of any use of pesticides, the importer said.

The woman bought the frozen beans at a branch of the Ito-Yokado supermarket chain in Tokyo's middle-class Hachioji neighbourhood.

"We checked bags of the same product but didn't find any holes or any abnormalities," the manager of the supermarket told reporters in televised footage.

Food safety has turned into a major political issue in Japan , which imports 60 per cent of its food - the highest rate of any rich country.

Ten people suffered pesticide poisoning in December and January, and thousands of others reported feeling sick after eating frozen dumplings imported from China. One girl went into a coma before recovering.

Japan and China, who have been working to repair sometimes rocky relations, have held meetings in a bid to find the cause of the pesticide contamination.

China's image as a food producer has suffered in recent months because of a scandal over milk products tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Four Chinese children are known to have died and at least 53,000 made ill after consuming the melamine-laced milk, leading to import bans being imposed by countries around the world.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Oct 08 - 08:43 PM

Melamine found in Thai condensed milk

October 16, 2008, 12:47 am

Related Articles

    * China threatens to "out" milk offenders October 10, 2008, 7:50 pm

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Wednesday it had found "very high" levels of melamine in a sample of unsweetened condensed milk produced and sold in the country.

The FDA ordered Thai Dairy Industry Co. Ltd. to stop production of "Mali" unsweetened condensed milk and requested retailers pull it from their shelves.

Tests found 92.82 milligrams per kilogram of melamine in a 385 gram can of milk, "which is very high," the agency said in a statement.

Thai Dairy Industry Co. Ltd. is a joint venture between Thai and Malaysian businessmen and the Australian Dairy Corp, according to the company's website, www.thaidairy.co.th.

The FDA said the company had told the agency that the raw materials used to make Mali condensed milk were imported from several countries, including Belgium, Switzerland, Australia, Germany and India.

Thailand is the latest country to find traces of melamine in a widening health scandal after the industrial chemical was found in milk and milk formula in China.

The FDA said it was conducting more tests of Thai Dairy Industry's products and ordered a recall of "the suspected product and others using the same raw material."

Tuesday, Thai restaurant and bakery S&P withdrew a line of milk cookies sold in Thailand after reports that Swiss officials had found traces of melamine in the biscuits.

Thai newspapers reported that Swiss authorities had pulled the S&P milk cookies, as well as other products from China and Sri Lanka, after tests showed they were tainted by melamine.

S&P said it only used milk powder imported from Australia and condensed milk from a Thai milk producer to make its cookies.

(Reporting by Viparat Jantraprap; Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Alan Raybould)

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 08:42 AM

Melamine found in two more products

October 17, 2008, 5:37 pm
Two more products have been withdrawn from sale in Australia after being found to be contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

Tests revealed Dali Yuan brand First Milk vanilla flavour and Orion brand Tiramisu Italian Cake with Cheese Cream - both made in China - contain low levels of the chemical.

"Australian importers and wholesalers have begun withdrawing these products from sale," Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FANZ) spokeswoman Lydia Buchtmann said.

The products should not be consumed and should be disposed of safely out of the reach of children pets, Ms Buchtmann said.

Friday's action follows the withdrawal from sale of four other imported products found to contain melamine.

Australian authorities have so far withdrawn White Rabbit milk-based lollies, Cadbury chocolate eclairs made in China, Lotte Koala Biscuits and Kirin milk tea.

Concerns have also been raised about melamine contamination of fruit and vegetables grown in China and exported to Australia.

Chinese vegetable products imported into Australia include fresh garlic and peas, frozen mixed vegetables, canned mushrooms and tomato paste.

Products contaminated with melamine, which is normally used in plastic products, have killed at least four children and sickened 53,000 in mainland China .

The food safety watchdog later told AAP its investigations had found no confirmed contamination of vegetable products imported from China.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Rumncoke
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 02:15 PM

It makes the Atkins diet look like rather a safe bet.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 04:04 PM

Yeah, let's heap a lot of abuse on the problem. This a case of industrial/agricultural abuse with a few people at the top taking advantage of a corrupt system. The huge bulk of the victims are likewise Chinese so it's not a globalization issue, however it is an important indicator of how future issues could go global in no time.

Kind of reminds me of a certain defective economic product produced in America and sold globablly and having precipitated a world class eoncomic crisis, has initiated a lot of well deserved distrust of American institutions.

Getting back to China. What the melamine affair has brought forth is the corruption of a single party controlled government. The Chinese Communist party controls the court system which discourages class-action lawsuits.

The common people of China, already having endured the loss of hundreds if not thousands of children under collapsed schools in the recent earthquakes, have a ways to go. I think it is a matter of time before a middle class arises capable of pushing for democratic political and social reforms. This won't keep bad stuff from happening lord knows, but it will help balance the power equation that makes all people targets of their governmnt in totalitarian regimes such as the People's 'Republic' of China.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 05:25 PM

China has a number of different 'dialects.' Wikipedia shows lists of 7 to 14. These dislects are mutually incomprehensible. (Other countries would call them different languages.) Clearly this makes for language barriers.

>>SC: Putonghua (aka Mandarin) is the standard language used throughout China for education and business. That said the various dialects do cause problems. If you are having a business discussion the peopel you are dealing with may switch to the local dialect for a private conversation.

Chinese writing is based on pictures. A basic education calls for learning 2000 pictograms. (I'm pretty sure I recall that correctly, not that the exact number is crucial.)

>>SC: There are more than 6000 characters. The PRC uses simplified characters which were introduced in the 1960's. The idea being that it would be easier to remember these. Though you have many different dialects in China the written system links them all. They might be pronounced differently but the meaning is the same. That is why you often see Chinese subtitles on their TV programs.
The Japanese who 'borrowed' the Chinese characters reduced the number required for be learned to 2000 Toyu kanji. But they kept the older complex characters.
But yes a basic knowledge of 2000 Chinese characters is needed to be literate.
Not all characters are pictograms, in fact less than 50% are. Many are phonetically based.

Western languages use about 26 letters. We can alphatize documents, store and retrieve them.

But how do you store and retrieve info, guidelines and advice in a writing system that has at least 2000 elements?
>>SC: It can be done by using phonetics. But you have to type in using what is called Pinyin. Pinyin are the phonetics, you come up with a list of characters which then have the same or close phonetic sound. This can be improved upon by using the Pinyin phonetic and the tone value 1,2,3, or 4.

If you come across a character that in not famliar then you have to break it down into either total stroke count, the number of strokes used to make up a character, or try and identify the radical element which gives a general area of meaning, look that up and provide a stroke count for the remaining part of the character.

When I studied Japanese and Chinese I never learnt the characters in isolation. I always tried to remember the characters as they made up a word. Apart from particles of speach most Chinese words are made up of at least two characters.

Not for nothing did the Jesuits call Chinese and Japanese the language of the devil.

Sorry about the thread drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 05:28 PM

BTW my mother in law had a very heavy Shanghai accent, so when she spoke to me in Putonghua I still did not understand. Bit like talking to a Glaswegian on a Friday night at chucking out time.





Sorry Glasgow.

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Oct 08 - 06:28 PM

does "Glaswegian" rhyme with "Norwegian"?

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 19 Oct 08 - 05:36 PM

This is pretty bad...

Chocolate sex spread taken off shelves over chemical fears

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:00 PM on 18th October 2008


Food scare: Ann Summers has withdrawn three chocolate products from China

Sex shops have been forced to remove a novelty chocolate spread from their shelves over fears that it may contain a toxic chemical.

Thousands of cans of the spread, bought by couples to spice up their love lives, have been removed from outlets of the Ann Summers chain after tests showed they contain melamine.

Levels were 100 times above the limits imposed by the European commission.

The industrial chemical has been at the centre of a massive scare in China after four babies died and 54,000 children under two fell ill from drinking milk products adulterated with it.

The action by Ann Summers follows a warning issued by the Food Standards Agency.

Affected products include a chocolate nipple spread, a similar 'Chocolate-flavoured Willy Spread' and a pack that contains a chocolate-flavoured 'body pen' - all made in China by a manufacturer called Le Bang.

Food safety chiefs in Brussels have ordered the destruction of all Chinese imports containing more than 2.5milligrams of milk products per kg.

The nipple spread contained 259mg/kg, the willy spread 153mg/kg and the body pen 126mg/kg.

The FSA said it had never previously had to call for the withdrawal of products of this kind.

'This is a first. We've never had to put out an alert before on willy spread, chocolate-flavoured or otherwise,' said a spokesman.

He said anyone who had used the products had little to worry about, adding: 'The risk from these products is very low and it's very unlikely to be harmful.'

Ann Summers said it had now removed the items from its shelves.

_________________

Subject: RE: BS: Melamine in food - global problem
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Oct 08 - 11:50 PM

Gee, I know they say can can be bad for your health...