The unreported melamine story

Korea has removed the following products from its stores:

M&M milk chocolates, Snickers peanut fun size bars, Kit Kat bars from Nestle, and Ritz “sandwich cracker cheese and rice cookies”

What you are not being told

1. Asian countries are pulling western “brand name” products from their shelves.

2. In contrast, the US has only pulled a few Asian-made products that have already been identified by Asian regulators as being contaminated.

3. So far, the FDA appears to have done NOTHING to track and test the products of US food manufacturers that imported TWO MILLION POUNDS of milk powder from China in the past year.

4. Melamine contamination is NOT limited to infant formula in China.

It has been found in candies, cakes, cookies, crackers, coffee/dairy combinations, and egg powder in countries all over the world including the US and Switzerland.

5. Melamine is an industrial product, not a legal food additive, and often comes with other highly dangerous toxins.

6. Melamine-contaminated products have caused injury and death to thousands of small children and infants in China.

7. Injuries and illnesses caused by melamine-contaminated products will show up weeks, months and even later in older children and adults in the form of kidney stones and kidney failure.

Note: The New York Times recently reported (10/29/080) on an epidemic of kidney stones in children and attributed it to “salt.”

Why you should be outraged

* The federal government knows EXACTLY what companies imported these raw materials

* These importers know EXACTLY what US food manufacturers they sold these materials too

* The manufacturers know EXACTLY what batches they put this material in and EXACTLY what stores they shipped these potentially contaminated products too.

* If alerted, the retailers could pull the products from their shelves today.

And none of them – not the FDA, not the food manufacturers, not the retailers, not the Bush administration – are doing anything to protect the public.

In fact, they are deliberately NOT releasing this public domain information – gathered with tax payers dollars – to the public.

And, of course, US news media is completely silent.

Melamine found in cookies sold in the US

Twenty-two Chinese milk companies exported melamine-contaminated milk products to countries worldwide, possibly including the US

Switzerland finds melamine-contaminated cookies on their shelves

Melamine found in candy in the US