China tainted milk crisis triggers global recalls

BEIJING -- Chinese officials pulled candies thought to contain contaminated milk from store shelves Thursday, echoing the expanding recalls across Asia and Europe of products ranging from yogurt to biscuits.


Authorities yanked White Rabbit candy from shelves in Shanghai and the southern province of Hainan in the first widely known recall on the Chinese mainland of goods other than milk products and milk.


The Shanghai government's quality watchdog was investigating the melamine in the White Rabbit candy, official Xinhua News Agency quoted the Shanghai government spokesman Chen Qiwei as saying Wednesday.


The Shanghai government has urged a subsidiary of Bright Food Group Co to stop the sales of the candy and pull them off the shelves, and to recall those for export that are likely to have problems, it said.


In China's tropical Hainan island some supermarkets in the capital Haikou have pulled White Rabbit candies from the shelves, according to a report on the Web site of People's Daily Thursday.


It is not clear if China's safety watchdog has ordered a nationwide recall of the candy.
The problems can be traced back to melamine, an industrial chemical that has made its way into China's dairy supplies and which authorities blame in the death of four babies has turned up in an increasing number of Chinese-made exports abroad -- from candies to yogurt to rice balls.
South Korea said Thursday it had banned imports of Chinese-made food products containing powdered milk following the discovery of biscuits tainted with melamine.


Australia and New Zealand also issued recalls Thursday for imported White Rabbit candy.
New Zealand Food Safety Authority spokesman Geoff Allen said he expected the White Rabbit Creamy Candies to be off shelves within 24 hours.



"This product contains sufficiently high levels of melamine which may, in some individuals, cause health problems such as kidney stones," deputy chief executive Sandra Daly said in a statement posted Wednesday on the agency's Web site. "The levels we have found in these products are unacceptable."



Meanwhile, Australian food regulators issued a statement late Wednesday announcing they had formally requested that wholesalers and importers voluntarily withdraw the candies pending further testing for melamine.



On Wednesday British supermarket chain Tesco removed Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candies off its shelves as a precaution amid reports that samples of the milk candy in Singapore and New Zealand had tested positive for melamine.


In Europe, the Dutch food safety watchdog has begun checking Chinese food for traces of contaminated milk.


France also banned the sale of all goods containing derivatives of Chinese dairy products, including biscuits, candy or other such foods.



Chinese baby formula tainted with the chemical has also been blamed for sickening 53,000 infants in China. Health experts say ingesting a small amount of the chemical poses no danger, but melamine can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.


US and European consumer safety officials urged Beijing to better enforce product safety standards. European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson was in Beijing Thursday for meetings with his Chinese counterparts.


The US Food and Drug Administration said White Rabbit candy has been added to its list of products being inspected at ports of entry, but that no melamine-tainted goods from China of any sort have turned up yet. Nonetheless, some ethnic grocers started removing the popular candies from their shelves.


more