BANGKOK - THAILAND'S health ministry plans to burn tens of thousands of food products tainted with the toxic chemical melamine, the English-language Nation newspaper reported on Sunday.

More than 13,000 boxes of powdered milk and 19,824 unspecified snacks containing high levels of melamine would be torched on Monday in Ayutthaya province, it said, quoting the Food and Drug Administration secretary-general.

Melamine, an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of plastics, has been blamed for killing four babies in China and leaving more than 53,000 others sick after making its way into the food chain.

Thai authorities have so far pulled biscuits, cheese crackers, chocolate and condensed milk from Malaysia and China off the shelves after detecting high levels of the chemical. -- AFP