Melamine Tainted Foods

Today's New Straits Times reported that:
Melamine-contaminated biscuits are still being sold openly by 24-hour convenience stores and sundry shops.The Health Minister is furious and warns retailers of stern action if they did not clear their shelves of 18 types of Khong Guan and Khian Guan biscuits at once.

"Shop owners or retailers who are found to be still selling these biscuits will be fined," Liow said.The ministry will seize and destroy all tainted products."

The source of the excessive melamine contamination was the baking agent, ammonium bicarbonate, imported from China, and not milk, as in previous cases.

Both Khong Guan and Khian Guan had been ordered to remove all 18 types of biscuits with immediate effect. The two companies were also advised to voluntarily recall other products pending checks by the ministry for melamine contamination.

To date, 22 food products containing melamine have been banned by the Health Ministry.

Apart from the Khong Guan and Khian Guan biscuits, the others banned are the White Rabbit Creamer Candy, Ego White Rabbit Creamy Candy and Taro brand biscuits.

Yesterday, the ministry also banned the Silang brand Potato Crackers for melamine contamination.

A random check of sundry shops and convenience stores in the city showed that some of the banned biscuits were still displayed prominently on the shelves. Workers there claimed ignorance of the ban.

Asked whether the onus was on the manufacturers or retailers to remove the tainted biscuits, Liow said "normally the retailers will voluntarily pull the products off the shelves and return them to the manufacturers".

A source from the Food Safety Quality division under the Health Ministry said manufacturers would be given a grace period of two weeks to remove all the banned products.

In another development, Food Safety Quality director Noraini Mohd Othman said in a statement that officials were gathering information from Japanese authorities on the frozen green beans which sickened three Japanese.

The Japan Times reported two days ago that all three experienced numbness in the mouth after consuming the beans processed by Chinese company Yantai Beihai Foodstuff Co in Shandong province.

On local news report that Chinese green beans were contaminated with the pesticide dichlorvos residue by more than a thousand times permitted by the authorities, Noraini said only locally produced mangoes with a maximum residue limit of 0.1ppm was allowed under the Food Regulations Act 1985.

As for imported food, the pesticide residue is only allowed in certain meat (beef, chicken and duck), milk, mushrooms, wheat flour, wheat germ and wholemeal wheat, with the maximum residue level allowed at between 0.02 and 10ppm.

Dichlorvos is an insecticide used to control insects, especially during storage of agricultural produce. People exposed to it may suffer nausea and vomiting, restlessness, sweating and muscle tremors. Very large doses may cause coma, suffocation and death.

So, be careful what you put in your mouths,as the Malay saying goes:Sebab mulut badan merana literally meaning because of the mouth, the body suffers.