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.
