Melamine Found in Food Products

Melamine has recently been in the news for being found in food products coming from China. Why is it there? What is it used for? And what can it possibly do to harm us? These are some of the questions I had recently as I heard the news reports about Baby Milk recalls and more recently Halloween candy in the form of pirate coins.

According to the FDA, Melamine is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide. Melamine by its self is not toxic but when mixed with cyanuric acid it becomes toxic.

So, why is it used in digestible products? It is added to raise the level of protein in baby formula milk. Formula milk had not been tested until recently for levels of Melamine because it was not assumed to be present in the product.

According to the MSDA sheet on Melamine, it is harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. It is an eye, skin and respiratory irritant.

About a year ago, Melamine was found in pet food and blamed for killing thousands of cats and dogs and many recalled pet food products. And yet a year later, we find it in baby formula. Ice cream produced by Yili, an Olympic sponsor, has shown the presence of Melamine.

What does exposure to Melamine cause? Exposure can lead to bladder or kidney stones, bladder cancer, and kidney failure. We know this to be true from pure Melamine, but we don't know what contaminants were added to the Melamine used. What affects do these contaminants cause? For companies who care little about the end user by putting Melamine into their consumable product, can we really trust the purity of the Melamine they used?

The list of recalled items, which are mainly Chinese versions of these products, have very common names. The list is broader than we have been lead to expect in the US. Items like Chinese made cheesecake, cookies from the Netherlands, Mr. Brown coffee products, Cadbury, Ritz snacks, Chinese candy, Dove chocolates, Dreyers cake mix, Oreo wafer sticks, M&Ms, Snickers, and the list goes on. I do want to reiterate that these products found with Melamine were Chinese made products not their counterparts made elsewhere.

Some of these items have found their way to US store shelves. Most recently found in Halloween candy, Sherwood Brands Pirate's Gold Milk Chocolate Coins manufactured in China have tested positive by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. These products have been found in Costco and many dollar and bulk type stores in the US.

If you are concerned about any product contents you can double check the FDA website for a list of product warnings. These can be found at the following website:

http://www.fda.gov/oc/opacom/hottopics/melamine.html#warnings

Resources:

http://www.sciencebase.com

http://www.fda.gov