Recalls of Chinese dairy products widened worldwide on Thursday as the EU banned imports of baby food containing Chinese milk and more Asian countries pulled suspect products off shelves.
In addition to its ban, the EU called for tighter checks on other Chinese food imports.
“The measures will also impose an exclusive, total ban on all products originating from China for infants and young children, containing any percentage of milk,” said EU spokeswoman Nina Papadoulaki.
“Tests will be carried out on all imported goods from China containing more than 15 percent milk powder and random testing will be done on such products already on the EU market,” Papadoulaki said.
Food safety experts in the EU, which imports about 19,500 tonnes of Chinese confectionary products, said there was only a limited risk in Europe from the food imports.
Increased controls introduced last week did not find any food imports tainted with abnormal levels of the industrial chemical melamine, but the European Commission said it was implementing the measures as a precaution in the face of the growing health scare.
Chinese baby formula tainted with melamine has been blamed for the deaths of four infants in China and the illnesses of 54,000 others. Melamine-tainted products have turned up in an increasing number of Chinese-made exports abroad — from candies to yogurt to rice balls.
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