JEDDAH: Since the announcement of China’s melamine-tainted milk scandal three months ago — which to date has contributed to the death of six infants and the illness of 294,000 children worldwide — recalls and new developments concerning the issue have been covered regularly in the global press.
The latest update concerning the Kingdom came two months after the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) called on the Ministry of Commerce to ensure that no tainted Chinese milk or products manufactured using the hazardous chemical additive make their way into the Kingdom’s supermarkets.
At the time, the Ministry of Commerce issued a statement that Chinese milk products were not entering the Kingdom, which it said produces sufficient milk to satisfy local demand.
Last Wednesday, the SFDA issued a warning against consuming Nestle_s Nesvita Pro-Bone Protection, which has tested positive for melamine. The contaminated batch was produced on May 6 at a Nestle plant in China. The SFDA also said a chocolate wafer crème confection made by Malaysian-based Apollo Food Industries on June 5 this year also tested positive for melamine.
Melamine is a chemical substance used to make durable plastics, glues and fertilizer. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, it has been termed to have low toxicity. However, when mixed with Cyanuric Acid to form Melamine Cyanurate, which was implicated in the recent Chinese milk contaminations and the 2007 pet food controversy, it can cause kidney failure to chronic ingestion, which is known to be cancerous or cause reproductive damage.
Chinese authorities said the mixture was added to the milk formula to boost protein levels to pass quality checks after the milk was watered down to increase inventories and sales figures.
Among the forerunners to issue a voluntary recall on its products due to the scare was the UK-based Cadbury company, which withdrew 11 types of its chocolate produced at its Beijing plant in September as a precautionary measure.
Other countries like Singapore have also found various brands of Chinese-made snack products that have tested positive for melamine. Other countries such as Korea have detected melamine in four chocolate and cream puffed products and quickly removed them from store shelves when the fiasco first began.
Canada’s Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) also issued a recall on various products that were discovered to contain traces of the industrial additive.
In addition, products such as Lipton Tea and Coffee produced by Unilever Hong Kong, yoghurt-type drinks and Heinz baby cereal from Hong Kong have all been found to contain melamine.
During its local investigation, Arab News spoke to the owners of small to medium-sized enterprises to get a closer look at how food such as those recalled worldwide could possibly enter the Kingdom and wind up in Saudi pantries.
“Even though the large candy and snack distributors here are responsible for supplying Saudi Arabia with goods manufactured in the GCC, some discount and convenience stores in the Kingdom, which can’t afford to pay the increasing prices for such items, can very easily contact overseas manufacturers and suppliers in China, or any other country, and purchase these same products at a lower cost not knowing if they are safe for local consumers or not,” said S. B., the owner of a popular discount chain with several branches around Jeddah.
Another trader, the owner of several convenience stores based in Jeddah, who wanted to remain anonymous to protect his business reputation, said he agrees. “At this point the best thing to do is pre-check the origin of products and where distributors are working from before buying.”
He also said that he has taken the initiative to stop importing from China and its neighboring countries, adding that not all traders are as scrupulous about consumer safety and will import and sell dangerous products just to earn extra cash. “The only other advice I can give Saudi consumers is to just eat, drink and shop with caution,” he warned.
