Eating a tiny bit of a melamine, the chemical responsible for a global food safety scare, is not harmful — except when it’s in baby formula, US food safety officials said on Friday.
Melamine-tainted formula has sickened more than 54,000 children in China and is being blamed for the deaths of at least four babies.
The chemical has also turned up in products sold across Asia, ranging from candies to chocolates and coffee drinks, that used dairy ingredients from China. Authorities in California and Connecticut have found melamine in White Rabbit candies imported from China.
But infant formula made in the US is safe, because manufacturers do not use any ingredients from China, officials said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on Friday its safety experts have concluded that eating a very tiny amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million (ppm) — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food that was tainted with the chemical every day.
Separately, a New Jersey company announced a recall of Chinese-made yogurt drinks on Friday after FDA testing found melamine.
The Blue Cat Flavor Drink, also called Lanmao, is sold nationwide in Asian groceries, said a spokesman for the company, Tristar Food Wholesale of Jersey City.
More US recalls involving melamine can be expected as product testing continues, particularly in Asian groceries around the country, FDA officials said.
FDA officials stressed that the melamine safety assessment the agency issued on Friday ded not mean US authorities would condone foods deliberately spiked with the chemical.
The 2.5ppm standard was meant to address situations in which the chemical accidentally comes into contact with food, such as in cases where it was used for industrial purposes in a factory that makes food products.
And infant formula sold to US consumers must be completely free of melamine, officials said.
“There is too much uncertainty to set a level in infant formula and rule out any public health concern,” the FDA said.
Unscrupulous suppliers in China appear to have been adding melamine to make watered-down milk seem protein-rich in quality-control tests. That’s because melamine is high in nitrogen, as is protein.
Also See: New products linked to melamine
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS