Saudi authorities discover melamine in Nestle China's milk powder

Melamine has been found in a batch of a milk powder made by a Nestle plant in China, the Saudi Arabia's Food and Drug Authority said on Wednesday (Dec 3, 2008).

Saudi Arabia named the tainted product as a 400 gram pack of Nesvita Pro Bones and said the batch was produced on May 6, 2008 by a Nestle plant in China.

Nestle said in a statement that all its dairy products sold in Saudi Arabia are absolutely safe for consumption and that no Nestle product is made from milk adulterated with melamine.

Nestle said its tests on the product as well as those products tested by an independent laboratory gave results well that were acceptable to the limits defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as well as by authorities in Canada, New Zealand and the EU.

Due to the melamine scandal, shares in Nestle had fallen by around 3 percent to US$39.99 as well as dropping by 2.26 percent in the Dow Jones Stoxx European food and beverage index.

Nestle had organised a withdrawal of Nesvita Pro Bones Low Fat products after a request from Saudi Arabia was on October 18 to pull milk products made in China.