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World Report

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• Traces of melamine found in U.S. infant formula

Traces of melamine found in U.S. infant formula

THE food scare for infants has now crept into the United States(U.S.) where traces of the industrial chemical melamine have been found in some top brand formulae. But in a worrisome double-talk, federal regulators say the products are safe. The Food and Drug Administration a few weeks earlier had raised doubt that any melamine exposure level was safe for consumtion. The three firms: Abbott Laboratories, Nestle and Mead Johnson which manufacture more than 90 per cent of all infant formula produced in the U.S. have confirmed one taint or the other.
Previously undisclosed tests, obtained by The Associated Press (AP) under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, showed that the FDA has detected melamine in a sample of one popular formula; the presence of cyanuric acid, a chemical relative of melamine, in the formula of a second manufacturer; and a third major formula maker confided in AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.

In all, the FDA data for tests of 77 infant formula samples, indicated that a trace concentration of melamine was detected in one product — Mead Johnson's Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron. Indeed, an FDA spreadsheet showed two tests were conducted on the Enfamil, with readings of 0.137 and 0.14 parts per million.
Also, three tests of Nestle's Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron detected an average of 0.247 parts per million of cyanuric acid, a melamine byproduct. The FDA said last month that the toxicity of cyanuric acid is under study, but that meanwhile it is "prudent" to assume that its potency is equal to that of melamine. The FDA tests also detected melamine in two samples of nutritional supplements for very sick children who have trouble digesting regular food. Nestle's Peptamen Junior medical food showed 0.201 and 0.206 parts per million of melamine, while Nestle's Nutren Junior-Fiber showed 0.16 and 0.184 parts per million. The agency said that while there are no established exposure levels for infant formula, pediatric medical food — often used in feeding tubes for very sick, young children — can have 2.5 parts per million of melamine, just like food products other than infant formula.
And while the FDA said tests of 18 samples of formula made by Abbott Laboratories, including its Similac brand, did not detect melamine, spokesman Colin McBean said some company tests did find the chemical. He did not identify the specific product or the number of positive tests. McBean said the detections were at levels far below the health limits set by all countries in the world, including Taiwan, where the limit is 0.05 parts per million. "We're talking about trace amounts right here, and you know there's a lot of scientific bodies out there that say low levels of melamine are always present in certain types of foods," said McBean.

The U.S. government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, soon after problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China.

Melamine recently found in lager concentrations in Chinese infant formula has been blamed for killing at least three babies and making at least 50,000 others ill.