Two more dairy sweets disappear from shelves
Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety confirmed a Singapore laboratory's finding of melamine in White Rabbit Creamy Candy, and stores in Shanghai began clearing the sweets from shelves even though its maker has still not initiated a recall.
The centre warned the public not to eat the popular mainland sweet or Four Seas strawberry-flavoured cake, which also contains melamine, tests show, and asked shops and their suppliers to stop selling them.
Consuming normal amounts of either product would not make a three-year-old ill, it said.
The tests found 4.6mg per kilogram of melamine in the candy and 6.1mg per kilogram in the cake. Both exceed the melamine limit of 2.5mg per kilogram permitted under a regulation which took effect yesterday.
However, the centre said the products' distributors would not face prosecution under the regulation since it took samples of them for testing before it became law.
Some Shanghai stores have voluntarily withdrawn White Rabbit candy from sale. The supermarket group which owns the Kedi convenience store chain ordered staff to withdraw the sweets from sale.
The Shanghai-based Bright Food Group, which owns White Rabbit candy producer Guan Sheng Yuan Group, said a testing agency was checking the candies, and it would decide whether to recall its products after receiving the results.
Nestle, the world's largest food producer, said all its milk products sold in China were 'absolutely safe' following reports by Hong Kong media that two of its products contained melamine.
Nestle said it was continuing to sell infant formula and other dairy products on the mainland and in Hong Kong.
Royal Friesland Foods recalled China-made Dutch Lady drink in Hong Kong and Singapore after the brand's strawberry-flavoured milk, made in China, was found to be contaminated.
Meanwhile, some Hong Kong pharmacies are running short of some baby formula lines after a huge increase in demand. But Lau Oi-kwok, chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Pharmacies, said the situation was not too serious because only certain products were in short supply and 'consumers are not panic buying'.
A salesman at a pharmacy in Sheung Shui near the border said foreign formula brands Mead Johnson, Wyeth and Abbott's had sold out.
'We don't know when [the shelves will be refilled]. It depends on when the manufacturers will deliver us the products,' he said.
Mead Johnson said it had adjusted its supply after seeing demand for milk powder surge. It was monitoring the situation closely.
