EU orders tests for Chinese milk in food imports

EU regulators yesterday ordered compulsory testing of processed food from China that contains powdered milk, responding to a scandal over milk products that have made several thousands of children ill.

EU authorities will test all products from China that include more than 15 per cent of milk powder, and ban all products originating from that country for infants and young children that contain any proportion of milk.

China's top quality regulator has resigned over the scandal, which has found milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, used in pesticides and in making plastics.

"These precautionary measures are in addition to the existing ban on the import of milk and milk products into the EU from China," the European Commission said in a statement.

The Commission, the EU's executive arm charged with monitoring food safety and implementing EU food standards across the bloc's 27 member countries, said no contaminated products had yet been found on any EU market.

It ordered the tests in response to an opinion issued yesterday by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa), Europe's leading food risk assessment agency based in Parma, Italy.

Efsa's expert scientific opinion said children who eat large amounts of biscuits and sweets containing Chinese milk powder contaminated with melamine could, in theory, exceed safe doses of the chemical.

Rich in nitrogen, melamine is fairly cheap and can be added to substandard or watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen to measure protein levels in milk.

Efsa looked at worst-case scenarios - large consumption of highly contaminated products - and said in a statement that there was no risk to adults, but a potential threat to children.

"In worst-case scenarios with the highest level of contamination, children with high daily consumption of milk toffee, chocolate or biscuits containing high levels of milk powder would exceed the TDI (tolerable daily intake)," it said.

"It is presently unknown whether such high level exposure scenarios may occur in Europe," the statement added.

Although the EU does not import milk or milk products from China, the Commission is concerned that composite food products that enter EU markets might contain, or be made from, such items - like biscuits and confectionery, especially chocolate.

Last year, EU countries imported about 19,500 tonnes of confectionery products from China such as pastry, cake and biscuits and a further 1,250 tonnes of chocolate and other food preparations containing cocoa.

Four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk powder, which causes kidney stones and agonising complications, and a string of Asian countries have banned or recalled Chinese milk products. Hong Kong authorities have said a fifth child was suffering from kidney stones related to drinking tainted milk.

Thousands of Chinese infants are also sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula. The World Health Organisation and Unicef have called China's milk scandal "deplorable".

Some EU countries have already taken action unilaterally. Italy has imposed extra checks on Chinese food imports, requiring certificates to show they are free from milk.

France has banned all food items containing Chinese milk products and has been checking whether any baby milk of Chinese origin is present on the French market, although no such products have yet been found.