FDA burns 8 tonnes of melamine-tainted products

AYUTTHAYA: -- Thailand's Food and Drug Administration burned eight tonnes of food products tainted with high levels of the toxic chemical melamine on Monday.

Deputy Public Health Minister Wicharn Meenchainan witnessed the incineration of tens of thousands of food product items contaminated with higher than acceptable levels of melamine at the Bang Pa-in industrial estate north of Bangkok .

Some 20,000 boxes of snacks such as cheese crackers and biscuits and more than 13,000 cans of unsweetened condensed milk containing high levels of melamine were destroyed.

Mr. Wicharn said that the burning of the melamine-tainted products was to ensure Thailand's consumers that food products in the market are melamine free.

He expressed appreciation to the Thai Dairy Industry Co, producer of Mali milk products, as Thailand's first food processing plant to have its own equipment to test melamine in raw materials before using them in manufacturing.

Mr. Wicharn urged other food producers and importers to strictly control the quality of their products and continue cooperating with the FDA to prevent contaminated food from reaching consumers.

Melamine, an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of plastics, has been used in some milk products and is blamed for the deaths of four infants in China and having left more than 53,000 others sick.

-- TNA 2008-11-10

Thailand burns melamine-tainted products

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration burned eight tons of food products tainted with high levels of the toxic chemical melamine on Monday.

Deputy Public Health Minister Wicharn Meenchainan witnessed the incineration of tens of thousands of food product items contaminated with higher than acceptable levels of melamine at the Bang Pa-in industrial estate north of Bangkok, according to the Thai news Agency.

Some 20,000 boxes of snacks such as cheese crackers and biscuits and more than 13,000 cans of unsweetened condensed milk containing high levels of melamine were destroyed,

Wicharn said that the burning of the melamine-tainted products was to ensure Thailand's consumers that food products in the market are melamine free.

Source: Xinhua - 10 November 2008