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Source: Reuters -
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Food products tainted by the industrial chemical melamine may have been sold in New Zealand shops and the Food Safety Authority is still investigating.
Fonterra raised the alarm on Saturday when it revealed that export milk powder had been mixed with a contaminated iron supplement that has also been used in the production of things like yoghurt and biscuits.
If you believe the Green Party, Kiwi consumers should be worried about the latest melamine scare, even though the government says there is no safety concern.
"They should say, 'look, as a precaution we're going to put consumer safety first, we're going to withdraw this product from sale'," says Sue Kedgley, Green MP.
Fonterra revealed that a German iron supplement used to fortify milk powder contained unacceptable levels of melamine.
Three other New Zealand companies have also imported the contaminated iron supplement for use in products ranging from biscuits and yoghurt to bread and cereals.
However independent tests of the milk powder have so far proved negative for melamine.
And while it can't legally be used in food, the Food Safety Authority says some melamine contamination is inevitable.
"It's used in wrappings, it's used in table tops, plates and cups. So the presence of melamine, the inadvertent presence of melamine, is probably not unusual at very, very low levels," says Dr Geoff Allen, Food Safety Authority director.
European and American authorities also tolerate minimal amounts of melamine in food, but critics say there should be no safe level for the toxic chemical.
"Melamine is a poison, so I think it is quite concerning if they're going to suggest that we consumers have to get, accept, a level of poison or contamination in our food," says Kedgley.
But authorities say there's no need for any product recall based on melamine contamination.
"If we can't detect it in the final product, there is no food safety risk and therefore we would not be legally able to withdraw the product," says Allen.
However the Greens say consumers should be told what products might be contaminated so they can make their own choice about what to buy.
