More countries, including EU, ban or restrict China food items.
Beijing is battling public alarm and international dismay after thousands of Chinese children were hospitalised, sick from infant milk formula tainted with melamine, a cheap industrial chemical that can be used to cheat quality checks. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING - CHINA'S toxic milk scandal escalated on Friday as one of the nation's famous candy brands was pulled off shelves and four more people outside the mainland were thought to have fallen ill from tainted milk.
The industrial chemical melamine has also been found in Heinz baby cereal and in potato crackers in the southern Chinese territory of Hong Kong, officials said late on Friday, as they ordered a recall of the products.
Taiwan's Pizza Hut says withdraws tainted cheese
TAIPEI - TAIWAN'S Pizza Hut said on Friday it had pulled grated cheese from its outlets after they were found to contain unacceptably high levels of the industrial chemical melamine.
BEIJING - KOALA-SHAPED cookies from a major Japanese confectioner were the latest products caught up in China's tainted milk scandal on Friday, while Taiwan reported three babies with kidneystones in the island's first cases possibly linked to the crisis.
Still, the World Health Organization said it did not expect the number of victims to grow dramatically. Powdered milk laced with the industrial chemical melamine has been blamed in the illnesses of some 54,000 children and the deaths of four infants, but WHO China representative Hans Troedsson said public awareness of the issue meant many young children were getting health checks and avoiding tainted products.
HONG KONG: A Japanese brand's Chinese-made chocolate-filled cookies contain excessive amounts of an industrial chemical, the Macau government said yesterday.
TAIPEI - THREE Taiwanese toddlers and one woman have developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese milk products, a hospital here said on Friday, in the island's first confirmed cases.
All four victims had frequently visited China and the three children, all aged between two and three, drank Chinese milk formula, the National Yang-Ming University Hospital said.
In China, the maker of White Rabbit candy, given to US president Richard Nixon on a landmark 1972 trip, said it was halting domestic sales after its products were found to contain melamine, normally used to make plastic.
The move came as a hospital in Taiwan said three young children who frequently visited China had developed kidney stones after drinking tainted Chinese milk formula.
The mother of one of the children had also developed kidney stones, the National Yang-Ming University Hospital said.
The only other five cases of children falling ill from drinking tainted milk outside the mainland have so far been reported in Hong Kong, where authorities said late Friday they had ordered a recall of two more tainted products.
Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said it had ordered retailers to pull Heinz DHA+AA Vegetable Formula Cereal and Silang House of Steamed Potato Wasabi Cracker from their shelves.
It threatened the producers of tainted food with prosecution if there was 'sufficient evidence.'
The news is the latest twist in an embarrassing scandal that has sickened 53,000 children in China, killing four, after they drank contaminated milk.
The number of countries and regions to ban or restrict imports of Chinese milk products also continued to rise.
The European Union also said it planned to ban some Chinese products containing milk.
'Europe will continue to expect higher standards as Chinese consumers expect the same,' Peter Mandelson, EU Trade Commissioner, told reporters on Friday on a trip to Beijing.
White Rabbit producer Guanshengyuan had previously recalled exports after Singapore authorities said they had tested positive for melamine, a spokesman said.
'We've recalled White Rabbit candy for export overseas, and we are temporarily halting domestic sales,' said the spokesman, who declined to be named.
The Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau was testing the White Rabbit candies, but the results have yet to be released, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
On Thursday, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency also recommended a recall of White Rabbit candies, and Britain's biggest retailer Tesco said it has withdrawn the brand.
India and Libya on Thursday banned imports of Chinese milk products, while Gabon said it was sending back tens of thousands of boxes of contaminated milk powder.
Togo and Benin also halted imports along with Suriname, where Chinese-made sweets were stripped from supermarket shelves.
Speaking at a media briefing in Beijing on Friday, Hans Troedsson, China country director of the World Health Organisation, warned there could be more deaths linked to the scandal.
'There could be more deaths but we don't believe it will be a high number,' he said.
He also suggested the crisis could be reaching its peak. 'We might be starting to see the end of it, even if I don't think we are yet at that level, because there is now vigorous testing, not only by Chinese authorities but in other countries.'
The scandal has not just affected children.
Two orangutans and a lion cub at a zoo near eastern China's Hangzhou city have been diagnosed with kidney stones after being fed milk powder containing melamine, the Beijing Morning Post reported. -- AFP
