Breaking News : 2 Cadbury products contains Melamine in Hong Kong??

Breaking News : 2 Cadbury products contains Melamine in Hong Kong??

Melamine is combined with formaldehyde to produce melamine resin, a very durable thermosetting plastic, and melamine foam, a polymeric cleaning product. The end products include countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, glues, housewares and flame retardants. Melamine is one of the major components in Pigment Yellow 150, a colorant in inks and plastics.

Melamine also enters the fabrication of melamine poly-sulfonate used as superplasticizer for making high-resistance concrete. Sulfonated melamine formaldehyde (SMF) is a polymer used as cement admixture to reduce the water content in concrete while increasing the fluidity and the workability of the mix during its handling and pouring. It results in concrete with a lower porosity and a higher mechanical strength exhibiting an improved resistance to aggressive environments and a longer life-time.

The use of melamine as fertilizer for crops had been envisaged during the '50s and '60s because of its high nitrogen content (2/3). However, the hydrolysis reactions of melamine leading to the nitrogen mineralisation in soils are very slow, precluding a broad use of melamine as fertilizing agent.

Melamine derivatives of arsenical drugs are potentially important in the treatment of African trypanosomiasis

Melamine use as non-protein nitrogen (NPN) for cattle was described in a 1958 patent.In 1978, however, a study concluded that melamine "may not be an acceptable non-protein N source for ruminants" because its hydrolysis in cattle is slower and less complete than other nitrogen sources such as cottonseed meal and urea.

Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. Standard tests such as the Kjeldahl and Dumas tests estimate protein levels by measuring the nitrogen content, so they can be misled by adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine.

Hong Kong finds melamine in two Cadbury products

HONG KONG, Oct 6 (Reuters) - A Hong Kong laboratory has found excessive amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in two types of Cadbury Plc chocolate made in China that the firm recalled last week as a precaution.

Thousands of children in China have fallen sick and four have died after drinking melamine-laced milk. The dairy scare, China's latest in a long line of food safety problems, also prompted mounting recalls and warnings abroad.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate Bulk Pack 5kg was found to contain with 6.9 parts per million (ppm) of melamine and Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate Bulk Pack 5 kg had 56 ppm, a government statement said.

Under Hong Kong regulations, the limit for melamine in these products is 2.5 ppm.

"Based on the levels detected, the public is advised to stop consuming the products concerned," a spokesman for Hong Kong's Centre for Food Safety said.

The British confectionary group last Monday announced the recall of 11 Chinese-made products from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia as the scandal snowballed.

Tests in Hong Kong cleared another of the recalled products, which was not named in the government statement, bringing to six the number of Cadbury products with satisfactory levels of melamine so far.

Three products were not available for tests, the Hong Kong government statement said.

Chinese police have detained six people suspected of producing and selling melamine, the official Xinhua news agency said. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)