FDA halts milk-based shipments from China bound for U.S. shores

The Food and Drug Administration has stopped taking Chinese shipments containing milk-based products until they’re tested for the chemical melamine.

Melamine is used in the industrial setting for plastics and fertilizers but has been added as a taint to milk products to boost protein levels when they’re inspected.

Melamine poisoning has killed and injured scores of children in China as they ingest the counterfeit milk and formula. Melamine was also the source of the pet food recall which sickened and killed pets in North America last year.

The FDA said it will allow any shipments that can prove they’re not ferrying poisonous milk products. Regulators also announced efforts to ramp up its inspection of products already on store shelves and those awaiting shipment to retailers.

FDA Commissioner Andew von Eschenbach said he plans to visit China next week to meet with safety officials over the melamine issue, primarily. It should be noted that this meeting and reports of heightened scrutiny comes weeks after initial reports of the products being poisoned and counterfeit in China.

The only products that were recalled by the FDA were sold in ethnic grocery stores. This increased effort lately is based on more activity against melamine products in other countries, The Washington Post reports.

The FDA still contends that finished products containing melamine are not harmful if ingested by healthy adults, but large amounts of the chemical could lead to kidney stones or death.

There is an allowable amount of melamine acceptable in products (2.5 parts per million) not infant formula.

At least one U.S. Representative has chastised the FDA for not acting quickly enough in response to the melamine issue.