Never mind Chinese products; beware of Philippines' BFAD

Fourth China product has melamine- BFAD

MANILA, Philippines -- A fourth locally available dairy product made in China was found to be tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, the Bureau of Food and Drugs announced Wednesday.

Lotte Strawberry Snack Koala Biscuit tested positive for melamine, which damages the kidneys when ingested in large quantities or over a prolonged time.

In a one-page advisory, BFAD also announced that 34 other products were melamine-free.

This brought to 144 the number of China-made milk and milk-related products that have been cleared so far for sale by BFAD.

The three dairy products found to be tainted with melamine and banned from sale were Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk and Mengniu Drink (both of which come in packages with Chinese characters), and Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk 1 liter.

October 15, 2008

Singapore finds 20 MORE tainted products

SINGAPORE -- Singapore has discovered toxic chemical melamine in 20 more products from China and Malaysia, taking its total to 33, authorities said.

Three Chinese products and 17 biscuit items from Malaysia were found to contain melamine, the industrial chemical at the center of a toxic milk scandal which has rocked China's dairy sector.

The affected items include popular products such as Lotte Koala biscuits and Julie's crackers, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) said in a statement seen on its website on Saturday.

It was the first time Singapore had found melamine in non-Chinese products, the Straits Times said.

October 25, 2008

Source: www.INQUIRER.net (emphasis mine)

Japan's Nissin recalls 500,000 noodles over insecticide fears

This just came in and there is no need to panic.

I don't know if the Philippines is part of the distributed Nissin Cup Noodles. But anyways, even if we are, it will take a few instances of sickness before the Bureau of Food And Drugs or some government agency, will recall the product. 

Remember the melamine scare? Most of our Asean neighbors have detected melamine on some products including the usual chocolate and baked goodies we love but BFAD was not able to take notice any of the tainted products except a very few.

Products from China or any other country is not scary. OUR BFAD IS.

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TOKYO (AFP) - - Japan's Nissin Food Products Co. said Friday it was recalling half a million cups of instant noodles over fears of insecticide contamination in the latest food safety scare to rock the country's consumers.

A 67-year-old woman vomited and felt numbness on her tongue after eating Nissin's Cup Noodle this week in the Tokyo suburb of Fujisawa, the city's health office said late Thursday.

The product was made at a Nissin factory in Japan. A series of previous scares have involved food imported from China.

The health office said on inspecting the Cup Noodle they had discovered paradichlorobenzene, the key chemical in bug repellent, but no puncture or other abnormality in the cup.

Nissin was voluntarily recalling around 500,000 cups made on the same factory line the same day, a company spokesman said.

They were sold at supermarkets in Tokyo and neighbouring areas with most of them already gone from store shelves, he said.

"We apologise for causing trouble to Cup Noodle lovers," Nissin president Susumu Nakagawa told reporters late Thursday.

However, he denied the possibility of contamination at the factory, saying it had never used or stored the insecticide and had seven security cameras watching manufacturing lines.

"It is unthinkable that the contamination occurred at our production lines," he said.

The noodles scare spread Friday as another company, Myojo Foods Co. of Tokyo, said it found instant noodles laced with paradichlorobenzene and naphthol, also used as bug repellent.

A man "poured in hot water and noticed chemical smells," said a health official in Yososuka, southwest of Tokyo. The man was unhurt as he did not eat the noodles.

Nissin, based in the western Japan city of Osaka, created instant ramen noodles as Japan's economy grew rapidly after World War II. Aimed at busy people on the go, it has since become a multibillion-dollar industry.

Japan has been on alert after a series of health scares involving food, mostly made in China.

Earlier this month one woman fell sick after eating frozen green beans imported from China, which were found to contain thousands of times the permissible level of pesticide residue.

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