Manchee Banned in Europe?

Detect poison in Munchee products

(October 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Swiss authorities say they have found high concentrations of melamine in cookies from Thailand and candies from Sri Lanka and have called on other European countries to withdraw the tainted products from sale.

However, Colombo Dockyard PLC was awarded as the Most Outstanding Exporter of the year at the 16th National Chamber of Exports Awards held in grand style in Hilton Colombo recently, whilst Manchee of the Ceylon Biscuits Ltd. won the Best Sri Lankan Brand Exporter award.

Authorities in the canton (state) of Geneva say tests have shown high melamine levels in S&P milk cookies and LemonPuff Munchee candies from Sri Lanka.

Vitoon Sila-on, vice-president for business development at S&P Syndicate Plc, said the company has never exported cookies to Switzerland, but acknowledged that 60 cans of party cookies were shipped to Germany last month.

In any case, S&P would pull all of its cookies from its 280 outlets nationwide and submit samples to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing following the Swiss report, he said.

"We will wait until the FDA lab test results come out to confirm whether our cookies are safe for consumption or not," he said.

Mr Vitoon explained that S&P was making its cookies in Thailand by only using milk powder supplied by the Glory Chain Co, which was importing it from Australia, and condensed milk from the Thai Dairy Industry Co, producer of the Mali dairy products.

He said Glory Chain had shown certificates to prove that its imported Australian milk powder was of the highest quality. S&P Syndicate's shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand were down by 70 stang at 23.3 baht, in trade worth 0.15 million baht, at yesterday's close.

Switzerland's Health Ministry announced yesterday that it was halting the sale of three Chinese-made food products found to contain traces of melamine, but said consumers should not be alarmed as there was no grave risk to public health.

"Tests have found small traces of melamine in two types of biscuits and a brand of caramel sweets," the ministry said in a statement, adding that there was "no reason to fear a danger to health in Switzerland".

Sales of White Rabbit brand milk-flavoured sweets were halted in China last week after they were found tainted with melamine - an industrial chemical added by some major Chinese milk suppliers to make the protein content in diluted milk seem higher when tested.

The Swiss ministry said the level of melamine found in the products would only pose a danger to children aged up to three years "if they ate more than one kilogramme of the biscuits everyday for a long period," and that there was no danger to adults.

"However, this melamine contamination should still not to be tolerated, and the products concerned will be immediately taken off the shelves," the statement said.

Tainted milk has killed at least four children and sickened 53,000 in China in a widening scandal that has put a spotlight on the country's lax food safety standards and lack of corporate accountability.

Many multinational corporations have become implicated, with Unilever recalling milk powder after finding melamine in its Lipton tea products, Cadbury ordering back all mainland China-made chocolate products and Heinz recalling hundreds of cases of baby food.-Agencies + SLG- Sri Lanka Guardian