October 27, 2008

Hong Kong authorities find melamine in eggs, biscuits

Hong Kong has discovered the toxic chemical melamine in a brand of eggs and biscuits, authorities said Saturday (October 25), adding to the growing list of tainted products pulled from shelves.

Hong Kong's food safety watchdog said tests showed the Select Fresh Brown Eggs and Croley Foods Sunflower Crackers contained melamine, the chemical at the centre of a toxic milk scandal that has rocked China's dairy industry.

The Extra Large brand eggs were from farms in mainland China and the biscuits from the Philippines, said the Centre for Food Safety, which has conducted tests on supermarket foods since the scandal broke last month.

"We have informed the food trade of the test results and asked them to stop selling the products with unsatisfactory results. We have also sent warning letters to the retailers and the importers concerned," a CFS statement said.

Four children have died and 53,000 fallen ill in China after drinking milk or milk products laced with melamine, which is usually used in making plastics.

Some manufacturers had been using the chemical to make watered-down milk that appears to have higher protein content.

An array of China-made foods and drinks has been removed from store shelves around the world since the contamination first came to light.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged Saturday that China's food exports would meet international norms and win the trust of people globally, promising lessons would be learned from the nation's milk scandal.