MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FAO establishes new standards for melamine in infant food and animal feed

The maximum amount of melamine allowed in powdered infant formula is 1 mg/kg and the amount of the chemical allowed in other foods and animal feed is 2.5 mg/kg, according to new rulings from the United Nations' food standards body, Codex Alimentarius Commission.

Melamine is a chemical used in a variety of industrial processes - including the manufacture of plastics used for dishware and kitchenware, and can coatings - and traces of it unavoidably get into food by contact without causing health problems, however the substance is toxic at high levels.

“Establishment of maximum levels will help governments differentiate between low levels of unavoidable melamine occurrence that do not cause health problems, and deliberate adulteration, thereby protecting public health without unnecessary impediments to international trade” said Martijn Weijtens, Chair of the Codex Committee on contaminants in foods. While not legally binding the new levels allow countries to refuse to allow the importation of products with excessive levels of melamine.

The 33rd Session of Codex Alimentarius Commission was attended by 500 delegates from about 130 countries.

Two years ago, Chinese manufacturers added melamine to powdered infant formula as a cheap filler. “It looks like protein but it is not protein and it's actually dangerous when you have it in high concentrations” Jørgen Schlundt, the WHO Director of Food Safety and Zoonoses department explained. Zoonoses are diseases communicable from animals to humans.

More than 300,000 children got sick and at least six children died from contaminated baby formula, according to the World Health Organization. Since then, the United Nation’s food safety body called Codex Alimentarius Commission has been working on setting global standards for melamine levels in food.

Dr. Angelika Tritscher from the WHO’s Food Safety and Zoonoses department says this is “probably the quickest [safety] standard established in codex history”.

One possible unavoidable way to get trace amounts of melamine into food is from using an approved pesticide called cyromazine, which can break down into melamine.

Another way melamine can accidentally get into food is when it comes in contact with hard plastic dishes or melamine containing tabletops, Tritscher explains. She said that very small amounts of melamine can be released but adds that these low levels of melamine in food are “definitely not a health concern.”

Last November, China executed two officials for their role in the 2008 tainted baby formula scandal and 19 people were sentenced to prison.

Still, melamine tainted infant formula was found again earlier this year. Chinese officials reportedly seized 72 tons of melamine-laced milk powder in February.