S. Korea finds harmful chemicals in 10 Chinese food products

By Lee Joon-seung

SEOUL, Oct. 6 (Yonhap) -- South Korean health authorities said Monday that they have found traces of harmful chemicals in 10 Chinese food products that can cause kidney problems in humans during a nationwide inspection.

The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said in a news briefing that while
sales will be allowed for 212 products that have passed inspections, bans will be
maintained on 216 that could not be checked because they were imported in too
small quantities or are suspected of containing traces of melamine.
The health authority began testing imported foods on Sept. 19, after concerns
were raised that tainted dairy-based products may have been used in confectionery
imported from China.
It said 10 food products, including those sold by Haitai Confectionery and Food
Co., Lotte Confectionery Co., Nestle SA and Mars Inc. were tainted with melamine,
along with the milk-based ingredient lactoferrin, which is imported from New
Zealand.
Melamine is a nitrogen-based chemical that can pose serious health risks if taken
in large quantities. It is used widely in kitchen utensils, but if added to
dairy-based food items the nitrogen can artificially increase protein levels,
translating into higher dairy prices.
Chinese health officials have said the use of melamine in dairy products has
killed at least four infants and left 54,000 others ailing from kidney stones or
other illnesses.
The KFDA said of the 216 products, no tests have been carried out on 26 items
since they could not be traced and brought back to the laboratories for testing.
It said to help consumers determine which products should not be eaten, the
administration will maintain a database with pictures on the Internet
(kfda.korea.kr) and take tougher actions to penalize importers that fail to keep
accurate records of imports that hindered official recall measures.
The administration, in addition, said that it will check all imported vegetables
for melamine contamination in the immediate future, even though tests conducted
on products from Sept. 22 did not turn up any traces.
It said to tighten screening processes for imported foods, the government will
start checking for carcinogenic mycotoxin and fungus that grow on harvested farm
products this year, and introduce criteria for both heavy metals like chromium
and cadmium by 2010.
Health and Welfare Minister Jeon Jae-hee said earlier in the day in reference to
the melamine scare that the government was at fault for not acting more quickly
on public concerns that food and ingredients imported from China may have been
contaminated with melamine.
"The KFDA should have started checking products on Sept. 11 when the first
reports of melamine appeared instead of waiting for confirmation from Chinese
authorities that came six days later," she told lawmakers at a parliamentary
audit.
The minister then said that Seoul regrets not ordering an immediate sales ban on
all suspected goods to prevent people from inadvertently buying products that may
have been contaminated with the industrial chemical.