Melamine levels for food to follow WHO

Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Health is preparing a melamine standard for
food.

The amount will be set following a World Health Organisation (WHO) finding
that 0.2 milligrammes of the chemical per kilo of body weight per day is
tolerable.

This means that a 50 kg person can safely consume 10mg of melamine daily.

" Vietnam will now consider a safe limit for melamine based on careful
calculations," said the ministry's Food Hygiene and Safety Department
director Nguyen Cong Khan.

It will then publicise the allowed amount," he said.

The department's deputy director, Nguyen Thi Khanh Tran, said the ministry
had yet to allow any amount of melamine in food.

But the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's recently announced
limit of 2.5 mg of melamine in each kilo of animal feed was reasonable.

The WHO limit is lower than that in some industrialised countries.

The European Union's limit is 0.5mg per kg of body weight and Canada 's,
0.35mg.

WHO Vietnam representative Jean-Marc Olive said any country that set a
melamine limit should sign an agreement with export countries to ensure the
limit is honoured.

Importing countries should ask export countries to regularly check and
supervise quality and licensing, he said.

Samples taken from the imports should be regularly tested.

Melamine is added to food to artificially boost its protein levels but too
much can cause kidney damage.-Enditem