Recalled melamine-laced cookies found on N.Y. store shelves

Cookies that have been recalled by the Food and Drug Administration due to melamine poisoning have been found on store shelves in New York.

Koala’s march creme filled strawberry cookies are made in China and distributed by Lotte USA. Regulators ordered the products off store shelves on Oct. 17 because they were found to have dangerous levels of melamine.

Melamine is an industrial chemical typically used in plastics. But Chinese food manufacturers have been adding the chemical to milk-based products. This cuts down on the amount of milk they must use in products – a cost-saving measures – and gets the products past inspectors.

Melamine appears as protein in lab tests and is used to fool inspectors.

Melamine poisoning has been linked to sickening more than 50,000 Chinese infants because the chemical was found in their formula.

A few months after the initial reports of melamine poisoning were noticed among infants, the FDA said it would begin cracking down on Chinese imports of dairy and dairy-based products.

Because they waiting so long, critics believe products like these cookies and potentially tainted batches of infant formula could be on U.S. store shelves.

Melamine was linked to poisoning of dog and cat food in North America.

Though these cookies were recalled, the FDA is not going to enforce any actions. Melamine in the cookies is below the allowed amount by the FDA.

The cookies in question, though below the allowed amount of melamine, but above what is common in other cookies, are targeted to very young children.

When children are exposed to melamine, dangerous complications only start with kidney stones.