Looks like our earlier warning to not eat or drink anything with dairy content for the time being bears repeating. Singapore has now found traces of melamine in White Rabbit candies, wildly popular throughout Asia. The Straits Times reports:
Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said samples of White Rabbit-brand Creamy Candy imported from China were contaminated with melamine, an industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.This would be the second time in the short history of this blog that the quality of White Rabbit candies has been called into question. In July 2007, we reported that traces of the cancer-causing agent formaldehyde were found in the candies which are produced in Shanghai by the Guan Sheng Yuan Group.Authorities on Friday suspended the sale and import of all Chinese milk and dairy products after finding melamine in samples of a Yili-brand yogurt bar and Dutch Lady-brand strawberry milk manufactured in China. The ban includes milk, ice cream, yogurt, chocolate, biscuits and candy, as well as any other products containing milk from China as an ingredient.
'Retailers and importers have been instructed to recall these products and withhold them from sale,' the AVA said in a statement.
'Consumers who have bought the affected products are advised not to consume them.'
Meanwhile, the melamine scandal continues to widen around the region:
- Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety has found traces of melamine in Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk. And in the first reported case outside of the mainland, a three-and-a-half-year-old Hong Kong toddler has been diagnosed with kidney stones after being fed with Yili milk daily for the past 15 months.
- Public health officials in Taiwan have announced their findings of melamine-tainted instant coffee, milk tea and chicken-and-corn soup. The import of all such products into Taiwan has been banned with immediate effect, including instant coffee made by the popular Taiwan brand Mr Brown in China.
- In Japan, Marudai Food Co. issued a voluntary recall of five China-made products, saying they may contain the toxin melamine
- China ally Myanmar has announced it would "seize and destroy imported Chinese baby formula to safeguard against poisoning by the toxic chemical melamine".
- Brunei has ordered a blanket ban on all China-made milk products and dairy items.
- Malaysia has imposed a "level six import ban" on all Chinese dairy products.
- Bangladesh has also started on a crackdown and ban on three brands of Chinese-made milk powder.
- In Africa, Tanzania and Gabon were the first to impose bans on Chinese dairy products and Burundi has just joined them in the ban.
Photo from serenitynow78.
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AP reports, that this was known to the NZ embassy already mid August. If AP are correct, then may be in connection to a certain sports event the news was held back.
Filthy, ugly China ruined white rabbit candies! That is the last straw! What a shit hole country.
What no one has stated on this site is that it is highly suspected that the Chinese Company most likely added the Melamine to boost the Protein content measurement in order to charge a higher price for a product that ( fraudulently ) had a higher Protein rating. A higher Protein rating equalled a higher profit for the company selling it - even though it did not have an actual higher Protein rating due to quality Meat or Vegetable components - but instead, from an Industrial Chemical used to "cheat the system."
It is also suspected ( has been stated ) that the Chinese Company did not label the Food Product as a Food Product - to avoid inspections as it went through the customs chain.
And lastly - The Chinese Food System is woefully inadequate in safety - and mass problems with sicknesses and food poisonings, etc... are actually quite common in China, sadly.
They should expand tests across all manufactured food products in China..
Automatic death sentence for anyone spiking food for profit.
Damn, now I have to chuck my white rabbit candy! BTW, I wudn't want to be in the no.1 sh1thole country in the world. USA! Bankruptcy et al. ;)
@ BBC1
The US has toxic equities but China has toxic air, water, food, stocks, etc. China is the land of death and filth and brings disillusionment followed by suffering and death for the world.
@ nanheyangrouchuan
Yep, that is the image that the man in the street gets, and this image is entirely "Made in China".
And, barely the surface has been scratched, there is much more where this one came from. Good timing for yet another massive clean-up effort.
Let me just throw in a few terms for good balance that we foreigners are perfectly capable of similar things:
Radioactive "Tchernobyl" milkpowder exported from EU to Egypt. Contergan. Three Mile Island. Minamata Bay. Rotten meat traded in Germany. The Spantax olive oil case. And so on and so on.