Melamine Controversy in Chinese Foods

The China milk scandal that happened recently stirred a global controversy causing consumers to panic regarding food safety. This phenomenon spread through out the world that all nations moved forward to recall and ban all dairy products (including foods which have milk as one of the ingredients) coming from China. The controversial melamine chemical reportedly has been found in 22 Chinese dairy companies in the series of test conducted after Chinese officials received the devastating news about the said contaminations. Among the varieties reported with contaminations are infant formula, ice cream, tea drinks, milk powder, fresh milk, biscuits, cookies, candies, chocolates, pet food products and yogurts.

But what is Melamine and how this chemical substance causes troubles to food? Melamine is a white crystalline organic base containing 66% of nitrogen by mass. Basically, Melamine is non-toxic; in fact it has many uses in the industry.  It is usually combine with formaldehyde to form a Melamine resin, a very durable thermosetting plastic product like kitchen utensils and melamine foam, a cleansing product. Melamine resin can be found anywhere in the house like plates, spoon, ladle, floor tiles, laminated components, roof tiles, fabrics, glues, color in inks. It is also widely used as a fertilizer for crops because of its high nitrogen content. It is a fire retardant, therefore when a plastic made from melamine resin exposed to enough heat, melamine will melt, that's why plastic made from melamine is strongly discouraged to be put in a microwave, oven and heater.

It was reported that the melamine-tainted milk products in China is mixed with cyanuric acid, a chemical that protects chlorine from being destroyed by the sun, (swimming pools, normally have cyanuric acid). FDA (federal drug administration) permits low amount of cyanuric acid to non-protein foods, but clinical studies show that cyanuric acid when mixed with melamine forms poorly insoluble crystals which cause renal or kidney failure because of the inability of kidney to hold too much protein. Deadly kidney stones occur because of the formation of melamine cyanurate, commonly used as a fire retardant and described as very harmful when swallowed and it may cause cancer, kidney complications, reproductive damage and other chronic diseases. This is the latest scare that rocked the world when it was reported that Chinese dairy products are tainted with exceeding amount of melamine. The Chinese food products which have been found with melamine contaminants already claimed 4 infants with more than 53,000 have been hospitalized.

But the question is, why Chinese food manufacturers mixed melamine in their products? According to reports, it was added by manufacturers to deceive the government quality test for protein content in milk, Melamine will make protein content rise and increases the volume of milk. Suppliers trying to minimize production costs are believe to have added it to watered-down milk to cover up the product's protein deficiency. But experts say, pure grade melamine is too expensive to mix in milk. They suspected that the incident was the result of replacing real milk protein with cheap vegetable protein powder which contained high amount of low grade melamine. Low grade melamine contains harmful chemicals: sodium nitrite (used to mix in processed foods like hotdog, canned goods, tocino and chorizo), ammonia, urea and potassium nitrate- both can cause cancer, heart disease and hypertension.

The scandal heavily battered China's good image amidst the praises from a highly publicized success of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Li Changjiang, head of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, an agency that monitored the food and drugs safety in China, was forced to resign at the middle of the crisis, citing evidence of obvious failed supervision as numerous of dairy products companies had tested with positive melamine content. Foreign officials urged the Chinese government to conduct an immediate investigation regarding the controversy and punished the people involved. The growing concern among the global business sector is that hundreds of foreign companies have plants in Beijing and that their production might be affected because of the notorious problem in the food safety in China.

Early discussions of melamine danger started in March 2007 when many pet owners complained on animal's death after taking Chinese pet foods contaminated with melamine. Chinese officials have said no harm from consuming small amount of melamine less than 0.63 milligrams per kilogram. But some infant formula have been found containing up to 4,000 times that amount per kilogram which lead to the damage of kidney stones among infants. It was reported that Sanlu Group Company, China's largest producer of powdered milk was already aware as early as December 2007 that their infant formula milk was tainted with Melamine but the company did not inform the government about the said contaminations making the situation worst. Chinese authorities angrily ordered Sanlu's production to stop and destroyed their unsold products. The scandal leads to the arrest of Sanlu's general manager for negligence.