Oh no! Melamine in biscuits too?

24 October 2008

Last week, a newspaper reported about some biscuits produced in Malaysia that were found to contain excessive traces of melamine. What's actually worrying is that the company being reported is a familiar brand.

Picture taken from Khong Guan's website.

Here is the extract of the newspaper:

Excessive melamine was found in 18 of 47 biscuits produced by the Khong Guan and Khian Guan brands and they have been ordered removed from the shelves immediately.

“We have also requested that they voluntarily recall the rest of the products (the remaining 29),” said Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai.

Asked if they had agreed to do so, Liow said: “Yes, they are very responsive. They are all responsible companies.”

The 18 biscuit products were found to have melamine in excess of the permissible 2.5mg/kg or 2.5 parts per million (ppm).

Liow said the Ministry had traced the source of the melamine to ammonium bicarbonate imported by both manufacturers from China.

“Results from our tests found that Khong Guan biscuits contained 33.4ppm while Khian Guan contained 508ppm,” he said.

As such, Liow had banned the import of ammonium bicarbonate from China, placing the substance under Level 6 Examination (Auto Rejection), while ammonium bicarbonate from other countries were placed under Level 4 Examination (Surveilance Examination) under the Food Safety Information of Malaysia (FoSIM).

Hmmm... doesn't that worry you? And according to the report, there is actually a permitted amount of melamine in food products? Doesn't that mean that we have all been eating melamine all this time, without knowing?

And today, Brunei local news affirm this, and the list of food products banned from the Brunei market consists of 14 food products from Malaysia which includes Khian Guan biscuits. One product from China has also been banned (dried whole eggs). Visit the Brudirect website for the list of banned food products in Brunei.

Safiya and I are always fond of biscuits and crackers, but it looks like mummy and daddy will have a hard time choosing which ones to buy! I guess we'll stick to mummy's baking for now! Hehehe...