Melamine-tainted Chinese eggs, Filipino biscuits found in Hong Kong

Chinese infant milk products containing an unhealthy portion of industrial chemical-melamine that had led to the hospitalisation of nearly 53,000 children with four deaths, in China last month, has now been found in imported select fresh brown eggs from mainland China and biscuits imported from Philippines by Hong Kong's food safety watchdog 'Centre for Food Safety.'

CFS said that tests carried out on fresh brown eggs which were sold in packets of 6 each with an expiry date of October 25, 2008 imported from Chinese Dalian Hanwei Chicken Farming Limited, based in the northeastern port city Dalian was found to contain 4.7 parts per million (ppm) of melamine.

The legal limit under Hong Kong's harmful substances in food (amendment) regulation 2008, of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for melamine in the concerned products is 2.5 ppm, whereas in the US the FDA has stipulated the 'tolerable daily intake' for melamine at 0.63mg per kg of body weight per day.

For children under the age of three, who are more sensitive to melamine, 'the tolerable daily intake' for melamine is 0.32mg per kg of body weight per day.

CFS said in a statement, ''We have informed the food trade of the test results and asked them to stop selling the products with unsatisfactory results. We have also sent warning letters to the retailers and the importers concerned.''

It said the melamine could probably have come from fertilisers mixed with melamine and fed to the chickens that laid the eggs.

On Thursday the Chinese parliament had debated on a new food safety bill, which would give the government the authority to ban all unauthorised additives in food products.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao again apologised and said on Saturday that China's food exports would meet international norms and added that lessons would be learnt from the nation's milk scandal.

China's food safety record has drawn international scrutiny last month when it was found that China's best-known producer of infant formula, Sanlu Group's milk was mixed with the chemical – melamine, which is rich in nitrogen and is often measured as an indicator of protein levels. But the chemical can have serious health effects on humans. It is widely used in making plastics and fertilisers and has been used by Chinese businesses to artificially boost protein readings in animal feed and other food products.

The toxic chemical takes on the appearance of protein and can mislead testers in believing that the milk product has a higher nutritional content than it actually has. Suppliers who sold the raw milk apparently added the chemical so that it would be passed by food inspectors. (See: Toxic milk scandal leads to arrests in China)

As the effects of the scandal rippled across the world, health authorities said 12,892 children had been hospitalised, of which 104 were in a serious condition with kidney failure. Another 39,965 children had received outpatient "clinical treatment and advice" after being taken to clinics by their parents. 80 per cent of those who had fallen sick were under two, and virtually all under three. (See: China's quality chief resigns over toxic baby-milk scandal)

Earlier ten Hong Kong children had developed kidney stones after drinking melamine-tainted milk products from China.

Hong Kong authorities have said that they have conducted tests on supermarket foods since the milk scandal broke last month and this was the first example of eggs testing positive but now they will expand its testing of food imported from China to pork, farmed fish and offal products.

A sample tested positive for melamine in Philippine Croley Foods, 'Sunflower Crackers' (blueberry cream sandwich) was found to contain 3.2 parts per million (ppm) melamine.

The sample tested was a big pack (270 grams) containing 10 small individual packs, with expiry date of December 5, 2008.

Sunflower Crackers is a major brand of Croley Foods, which has its sales and marketing office located in Novaliches, Quezon City, and exports cracker, biscuits and cookies under several trade names to Asia and other countries.

China made foods and drinks have been removed from store shelves around the world since the contamination first came to light and many countries had banned all milk and milk products imported from China.

India had also joined the rank of nations in banning milk and milk products from China as World Health Organisation said that it was a deliberate failure on China's part of not alerting the world on the risks of health care over tainted Chinese dairy products. (See: India bans Chinese milk products as WHO expresses concern)