HONG KONG: A Japanese brand's Chinese-made chocolate-filled cookies contain excessive amounts of an industrial chemical, the Macau government said yesterday.
The amount of melamine in the cookies made by Lotte China Foods Co was 24 times the safety limit, according to a statement released.
The tests by the Macau authorities also found melamine in milk made by the Chinese dairy Mengniu Dairy Group and milk powder made by Nestle. The amount of melamine in the Nestle product was within safety standards.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
5th HK kid has kidney stones
HONG KONG: A fifth Hong Kong child has developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese milk, bringing the number of children affected by China's milk scandal outside the mainland to at least six - with one in Macau.
The latest patient, a 10-year-old boy, was hospitalised but is in stable condition, the Hong Kong government said in a statement.
The boy drank milk made by China's two leading dairies - Mengniu Dairy Group and Yili Industrial Group - whose inventories have been confirmed to be tainted.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taiwan outcry: Minister quits
TAIPEI: Taiwan's Health Minister resigned yesterday amid a public outcry after the government said it would allow the sale of Chinese milk products with traces of melamine.
Earlier, Taiwan had banned the import of Chinese milk products following the scandal.
But Mr Lin Fang-yue justified the U-turn, saying it was based on the US Food and Drug Administration's standards. He was only four months into his post.
The pro-independence opposition Democratic Progressive Party has accused the government of 'pleasing' China over its decision to allow sales of products containing traces of melamine.
A team of food safety experts will leave Taiwan for China tomorrow to discuss the latest scare surrounding mainland-made products.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Europe to test China products
HONG KONG: The European Commission yesterday proposed tests and restrictions on Chinese food products containing powdered milk.
A spokesman said European Union authorities would test all products from China containing more than 15 per cent of milk powder, and would ban all products for children containing any proportion of milk.
This came as the World Health Organisation and Unicef issued a joint statement saying the deliberate contamination of food for infants and young children was 'particularly deplorable'.
The Chinese government has set up working groups in nearly every province. 'Our quality inspection authorities are required to establish nearly 400 product testing centres within the next two years, and 80 of these will be food testing centres,' said Mr Hou Linglin, a senior official at the quality watchdog.
REUTERS
'Rampant use' of melamine
HARBIN (CHINA): The use of the industrial chemical melamine is rampant among farmers and feed ingredient manufacturers, a feedmill owner said.
'It is like a chain,' said Mr Sun Erwu, who owns a feedmill in northern China's Hebei province, centre of the milk-powder scandal.
'If cows are fed with poor feed and produce lower-protein milk, dairy plants will not accept the milk, so many add melamine,' said Mr Sun.
Nitrogen-rich melamine can be added to sub-standard or watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen levels to measure the amount of protein.
'Farmers have no idea what melamine is. They only know if they add it, their milk will not be refused,' he said.
The cheating, he said, was done by milk dealers and milk-collecting stations, which added melamine to milk to increase the protein level to the 3 per cent requested by dairy plants.
Many farmers were victims as they were unaware that melamine was added by dealers at collecting stations, Mr Sun said.
REUTERS
Animals in China affected too
SHANGHAI: China's milk crisis apparently has spread to animals. Two baby orang utan and a lion cub at the Hangzhou Safari Park near Shanghai have kidney stones after being fed Sanlu milk powder for more than a year. Sanlu Group is at the centre of the tainted milk crisis.
Officials at the Beijing Zoo and zoos in the other major cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian said they have no cases of animals falling sick from drinking tainted powder so far.
An official at the world's most famous panda reserve, the Wolong Nature Reserve, said the baby pandas there are not fed milk made from formula.
ASSOCIATED PRESS