Who could've predicted?

Take a look at the latest news of melamine from China:

The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday that protein powder imported from China was found to contain 1.90 parts per million (ppm) to 5.03ppm of melamine.

Health authorities randomly tested 13 batches of protein powder, six of which were contaminated with melamine.

The tainted powder was produced by two companies in China — Jilin Jinyi Egg Products Co Ltd (吉林金翼蛋品有限公司) and Dalian Green Snow Egg Product Co, Ltd (大連綠雪蛋品發展有限公司).

Of the 393 tonnes of protein powder imported from China this year, 261 tonnes imported from Jilin Jinyi and Dalian Green Snow were found to be contaminated with melamine, deputy health minister Cheng Shou-hsia (鄭守夏) said at a press conference yesterday.

That's just today's news.

Here's news from Hong Kong from just two days ago:

The discovery of excessive levels of the industrial chemical melamine in Chinese eggs has prompted the Hong Kong authorities to expand health tests to include meat products imported from China, a senior official said yesterday.

The move follows the announcement late on Saturday that Hong Kong testers had found 4.7 parts per million (ppm) of melamine in imported eggs produced by a division of China’s Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group.

The legal limit for melamine in foodstuffs in Hong Kong is 2.5ppm.

Hong Kong Secretary for Food and Health York Chow (周一嶽) said the melamine may have come from feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs.

As people who've been paying attention might be able to guess, Chinese officials knew about this since at least last month.

Two days before that, after we had been assured multiple times by officials from the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration's Department of Health that the products on Taiwan's shelves were safe -- you know what's coming -- melamine was discovered in Peacock Biscuits (孔雀餅乾):

Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), director of the Taipei health department’s food and drug division, said the results of the latest round of random tests came in yesterday, and that officials found one pack of Peacock Biscuits that contained 4.62 parts per million (ppm) of melamine.

[...]

Chiang said the company used powdered baking ammonia from Sesoda Corp, which had imported tainted ammonia from China. The powdered baking ammonia imported by Sesoda Corp was found to contain between 70ppm and 300ppm of melamine by the Department of Health (DOH) earlier this month.

[...]

The Bureau of Food Safety yesterday urged the public not to panic, saying that although the crackers used ammonium bicarbonate imported from China, the powder comprised less than 1 percent of their total volume.

There's a point that's been made by many that is worth reiterating: even "just" 0.7 - 3.0 ppm of melamine from your crackers, 2 more ppm from your milk powder, and all the other parts per million that we don't know about yet all add up to a greater danger than they're letting on to.

But, wait -- there's much more melamine to be had!

On October 21, 2008, we were told of melamine being found in Chinese fried bread sticks:

The Department of Health said yesterday that after testing several food products for melamine, two batches of Chinese fried bread sticks were found to contain 3.37 parts per million (ppm) and 4.29ppm.

Health departments across the country have randomly tested more than 100 batches of baked goods and other foods that are commonly prepared with ammonium bicarbonate, including cookies, bread, grilled squid, barbequed pork buns, wedding cakes, honeycomb cookies and cream puffs.

[...]

Businesses such as bakeries and food stands that do not use Chinese-made baking ammonia as a food additive are allowed to put up signs that say “No Chinese-made baking ammonia added, customers need not worry,” Cheng said.

On Saturday, ammonium bicarbonate imported by Sesoda Corp (東碱股份有限公司) from China’s Huaer Chemical Co (化二化工有限公司) was found to contain between 70ppm and 300ppm of melamine.

Of the 400 tonnes imported, more than 200 tonnes remain in circulation and have yet to be tracked down by health officials.

It was two full days earlier that we had learned of the contaminated baking ammonia:

While the DOH said that the melamine content was 70ppm to 300ppm, the Taipei City Government Department of Health issued a press release saying the concentration was between 1,410ppm and 2,470 ppm.

The DOH did not give an explanation for the discrepancy.

[...]

Ammonium bicarbonate is used in the food industry as a leavening agent. It is commonly used in biscuits, cookies, cream puffs and Chinese fried bread sticks (油條).

On October 18, 2008, we were being told that "the melamine crisis was almost over." That was 11 days ago.

What a fucking joke!

The most obvious way to avoid this is to stop buying China's crap.

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Natural and artificial ingredients: Taiwan, 台灣, melamine, 三聚氰胺, Department of Health, 行政院衛生署, China, 中國

Cross-posted at Taiwan Matters!

Labels: China, Department of Health, melamine, Taiwan, 三聚氰胺, 中國, 台灣, 行政院衛生署