Chinese widen contaminated food probe
SHANGHAI, China - Chinese regulators said yesterday that they were widening their investigation into contaminated food amid growing signs that the toxic industrial chemical melamine has entered the nation's animal-feed supplies, posing health risks to consumers throughout the world.
The announcement came after tests earlier this week found that eggs produced in three provinces in China were contaminated with melamine, which is blamed for causing kidney stones and renal failure in infants. The tests have led to recalls of eggs and to consumer warnings.
The reports are another serious blow to China's agriculture industry, which is already struggling to cope with its worst food-safety scandal in decades after melamine-tainted milk supplies made more than 50,000 children sick, caused at least four deaths, and led to global recalls of goods produced with Chinese dairy products earlier this fall.
The milk crisis is fueling worldwide concerns about food from China.
In Hong Kong, food-safety officials announced this week that they would begin testing a broader variety of foods for melamine, including vegetables, flour, and meat products.
On the mainland, Shanghai and other cities are moving aggressively to test a wide variety of food products for melamine, including fish and livestock feed, according to the state-run news media.
In the United States, worried consumers frantically sent e-mail messages to one another on Thursday and yesterday about the possibility of melamine-tainted Halloween treats after a spate of news reports that some candies and chocolates made in China or made with Chinese ingredients had tested positive for high levels of melamine or had been destroyed in recent weeks as a cautionary measure.
On a list by the Food and Drug Administration of products that may be tainted with melamine, White Rabbit Candies were the only item that might be handed out on Halloween. Earlier this month, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled 30-ounce containers of
A spokeswoman for the FDA said that the agency was constantly adjusting a nationwide sampling of products for melamine as new potential threats were brought to its attention.
Asian food-safety specialists said the tainted eggs contained much lower concentrations of melamine than the powdered baby formula. Hong Kong food-safety officials said a child would have to eat about two dozen of the eggs in a single day to become ill.
Still, if eggs, milk, and animal feed are tainted, there is the specter of an even wider array of foods that could come under scrutiny, including pork, chicken, bread, eggs, cakes, seafood, and candy. 