What is Melamine? Why is it in the news lately? If you want to know everything about Melamine and White Rabbit candy, then I suggest you read on.
Recently, the The Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) will be testing the Chinese-manufactured candy, White Rabbit, if it is positive of melamine.
Director of BFAD, Leticia Gutierrez, said that they will look into the ingredients of candies manufactured by Guang Sheng Yuan Co. Ltd. after Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) found traces of melamine in it.
A few days earlier, the AVA found White Rabbit candies positive of melamine contents, which is the same chemical found to be the cause of illness that affected more than 53,000 Chinese infants.
Melamine contamination was proven positive in at least three milk companies in China, namely: Sanlu Group Co., Mengniu Dairy Group Co., and Yili Industrial Group Co.
If you don't know yet, Melamine is a toxic industrial chemical that can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure. It is reportedly high in nitrogen and has no nutritional value.
Last July 2007, the said candies were ordered recalled and banned by the Department of Health (DOH) after it was found by BFAD positive of embalming chemical, formaldehyde.
BFAD assures the public that they will continuously conduct series of tests to find out whether milk-based products from China that are imported to the Philippines are positive of melamine.
But what really is melamine?
In simple terms, Melamine is an organic compound often used to produce melamine resin. This is done by combining it with formaldehyde.
Melamine Resin is a kind of plastic that is hard and durabile and can withstand fire and heat up to 140 degree centigrade. Melamine is used in the production of the firefighter’s suit and garments and car racers suit because they do easily catch fire and also resist heat.
Melamine is currently widely used in manufacturing of kitchen melamine wares such as plates, plastic spoon and fork. Melamine dinnerware plastics are durable, resistant to heat, germ-free, does not react to harmful chemicals, stain-proof and doesn't fade in color.
Melamine can also be found in countertops, white boards, fabrics, glues, housewares, flame retardants, inks, plastics and fertilizers.
So why is Melamine used in food, candies and milk?
Well, those food manufacturers that add Melamine to their products are actually cheating. They take advantage of the high Nitrogen content in Melamine so that it can pass the standard protein content of food or milk. These so called protein level tests simply measures the Nitrogen level of the product that's why.
I hope you now understand the issue of Melamine. You can search the internet to find more resources about about Melamine and it's health effects.
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