Sunday, October 5, 2008

Hong Kong Tests Find Melamine in Cadbury Candies


On Sunday Hong Kong's food agency claims to have discovered unsafe quantities of melamine in Cadbury Chocolate products made in Beijing. The British chocolate company recalled its Chinese made candies the day after the report. Two different types of products produced by Cadbury were recalled from parts of Asia and the Pacific. The Centre of Food Safety in Hong Kong said that the two products contained over the city legal limit of melamine which is 2.5 parts per million. Cadbury's Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate bars contained 56 parts per million while the Dairy Milk Cookies chocolate contained 6.9 parts per million. Health officials are advising the public to stop consuming these products because of the high levels of melamine. Melamine is a substance that is high in nitrogen and can mask low nutrient levels when going through tests. The officials beleive that it was used to hide low protein levels detected from low quality milk.

In my opinion this incident did not come as a suprise. Chinese made products are notorious for having the possibility that some cheaper unsafe substance may be used in the production process. I think that the Chinese officials do not care at all and that the Chinese government would have to be very corrupt to allow incidents like these to happen. It is also the fault of major corperations that are taking advantage of China's low Health and Safety standards to make quick profit. Not only should the Chinese government be blamed but the companies that are aware that their products are made with dangerous chemicals that can cause serious health issues.