One toddler in Macau and two more HK children end up with kidney stones
A worker removing dairy products at a supermarket in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG: Three more children outside mainland China have developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese-made milk products as countries from Indonesia to Canada announced strict checks and banned sale of melamine-tainted Chinese dairy products.
In the first reported case from Macau, a 16-month-old was diagnosed after being fed Nestle milk powder made in China's north-eastern Heilongjiang province, the government said in a statement.
Other countries taking precautions
AUSTRALIA: Currently testing China-made lollies. No China-made milk or infant formula products are imported into the country.
BANGLADESH: Three Chinese powdered milk brands - Sanlu, Suncare and Yashili - have been banned.
But Switzerland-based Nestle said in a statement yesterday that its milk products sold in China and Hong Kong are 'absolutely safe'.
In Hong Kong, Nestle said it had recalled a UHT pure milk product after a watchdog discovered samples containing a tiny amount of melamine.
Hong Kong was also hit by news of two more children falling sick with kidney stones after drinking melamine-laced milk, and tests found the industrial chemical in locally sold cake.
The two boys - two and nine years old - are in stable condition. Both were born in Hong Kong but lived in China and drank contaminated milk there.
The younger victim started drinking milk made by the Chinese dairies Yili Industrial Group and Sanlu Group - the first company exposed for selling tainted milk products - when he was eight months old, government spokesman Suzanne Lee said. The older boy had been drinking milk made by Mengniu Dairy Group every day for the past four years.
The crisis has caused some 54,000 children in mainland China to fall ill. Four children have died.
The scandal, which involves more than 20 companies in China, affected products including chocolate, yogurt biscuits and even meat buns.
Yesterday, melamine was found in Hong Kong's Four Seas brand of strawberry-flavoured cake and made-in-China White Rabbit sweets. The government ordered them removed from store shelves.
Singapore food regulators also detected the chemical in White Rabbit sweets. It was not immediately clear where the strawberry cakes were made, but Four Seas has factories across China.
Countries, including Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as areas like Taiwan, have already banned all milk products from China.
Melamine, a chemical used in plastics, can make milk and other food products appear to have a higher protein content. Though health experts believe ingesting minute amounts of melamine poses no danger, the chemical can cause kidney stones, which can lead to kidney failure.
Canada recalled boxes of a Chinese dessert mix after it failed tests in Hong Kong. Leading Japanese manufacturer Marudai Food pulled its cream buns and meat buns from supermarkets, but it was still conducting tests to determine whether its products were contaminated.
A senior health official in Myanmar said the government planned to seize and destroy all imported Chinese baby formula as a precaution.
With consumer confidence shaken, international food makers said their products were safe. Kraft Foods issued a statement saying Oreo products with milk did not have any dairy content from China.
