While promising it would ask its distributors to pull the six products, Nestle Taiwan Ltd (台灣雀巢) criticized the government for setting the new limit at 0.05ppm, a fifty-fold increase from 2.5ppm, which the company said was accepted internationally.
“As an international firm operating in Taiwan, Nestle Taiwan wants to emphasize that there is absolutely no addition of melamine in our products,” Gary Liang (梁家瑞), director of legal and corporate affairs at Nestle Taiwan, told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Liang also urged the government to establish a benchmark that was scientifically based and in line with international standards.
Nestle Taiwan said that its losses would amount to NT$1 billion (US$31.2 million) from the beginning of the tainted milk powder scandal to the end of the year.
The company’s shares of the adult milk powder and infant milk powder markets are 40 percent and 10 percent respectively.
“Our milk powder found to contain melamine this time was mostly adult milk powder manufactured in Heilongjiang, whereas our infant milk powder is imported from Europe,” Liang said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AFP, JERRY LIN AND MO YAN-CHIH
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