4 milk brands delisted; BFAD says products not from China

Tianjin: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao tried to reassure the world yesterday that his government was serious about food safety in the light of a scandal over tainted milk powder. Thousands of Chinese children have become ill after drinking milk formula contaminated with melamine, which can cause kidney stones, and countries around the world...
Four milk brands were removed Saturday from the list of milk products that would be subjected to laboratory tests by the Bureau of Food and Drugs after the agency learned that the dairy products did not come from China.

Fonterra, the company that supplies Anchor Lite Milk, Anlene Milk Low Fat, Anmum Materna and Anmum Materna Chocolate in the Philippines, clarified to BFAD that its products were made in New Zealand.

The company was a former part owner of China’s San Lu Group, the company that produced the melamine-contaminated milk.

“[So we] clarified [the matter] with BFAD today (Saturday) and [we] provided evidence that Anchor, Anlene, Anmum all came from New Zealand," said Alan Fitzmmon, regional director of Fonterra.

Leticia Barbara Gutierrez, head of BFAD, said that the agency reviewed Fonterra’s evidence.

“Then we found out they were manufactured in New Zealand, so we have to delete them from the list," she said.

The Philippines has banned all milk imports from China as a precaution against the spread of melamine-contaminated baby formula that has sickened more than 53,000 Chinese, mostly infants.

Last Tuesday, Gutierrez said that a temporary ban on importation, distribution and sale of infant formula and milk products has been imposed.

She said her office has no record of baby formula imports from China, but advises consumers not to buy infant milk that may have entered the country from China illegally.

Officials nationwide have been urged to investigate whether baby formula and milk products made in China may have been smuggled into the country.

BFAD on Friday released the names of more than 50 milk brands and milk-based products that would be tested for possible melamine contamination.

In a radio interview, Gutierrez said the list that they have come out so far is still partial.

She said some more brands will be named in the next few days.

In another development, Hong Kong authorities said Chinese-made milk tablets have been found to contain traces of the industrial chemical melamine.

The Center for Food Safety said late Saturday that milk tablets produced by Inner Mongolia Li Cheng Industrial Ltd. in China were tainted with the chemical.

The center also found melamine in three Chinese-made cookie samples produced by Japan's Lotte China Foods Co.

On Thursday, Macau's Health Bureau also found that melamine in the Koala's March brand cookies made by Lotte was 24 times the safe limit main source