cadbury recalls 11 products from sale in china as tainted milk scandal grows

your chocolate should only list a few ingredients on the back (cacao beans, sugar, cocoa butter, pure cane sugar, and vanilla) and it definitely should not include melamine. read your labels very carefully and buy your chocolate from artisans and countries that have a history of producing quality products.

ben steele and agencies guardian.co.uk, monday september 29 2008 11:14 bst article history


the british chocolate maker cadbury today said it was recalling 11 product ranges from sale in china as the country's tainted milk scandal continued to grow.

the withdrawals come over fears that the products could contain the chemical melamine, which can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

contaminated milk products have killed four chinese babies and made tens of thousands of others ill. melamine can be added to milk to hide the fact that it has been watered down.

in a statement, cadbury said tests carried out on the chocolates had "cast doubt on the integrity of a range of our products manufactured in china".

it is not yet clear whether the tests revealed melamine, and the company said products on sale in the uk were not affected.

the recalled products – which include eclairs and dairy milk – were manufactured in the chinese capital beijing and sold in mainland china, hong kong and taiwan. one product was also exported to australia.

"we believe it is appropriate to take a precautionary step to withdraw from the market all of our cadbury chocolate products that have been manufactured in beijing, pending further supply of fresh products," the cadbury statement said.

hong kong's centre for food safety appealed to people to "stop consuming the chocolate products concerned", adding: "we would alert the trade to stop selling the affected products."

two us manufacturers are already investigating indonesian claims that high traces of melamine were found in oreo wafers, m&ms and snickers imported from china.

the indonesian food and drug monitoring agency said a dozen allegedly tainted products distributed nationwide, including those brands, had repeatedly tested positive last week.

kraft foods and mars said they were adhering to a recall order, but stressed that the same products had been cleared of melamine in other asian countries. the eu has banned all imported baby food from china.