Taiwan’s department of health has told Nestlé to suspend the sale of its Chinese-made Neslac and Klim products after trace amounts of melamine were detected.
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According to Nestlé, the safety watchdog detected “minute” levels of the industrial chemical.
Products tainted with melamine have been linked to the deaths of four children and hospitalisation of thousands more in China where, it is believed, dairy farmers used it to artificially increase the protein content of milk.
“Such minute traces exist in the natural food cycle,” the Swiss food giant said.
“Indeed, the EU and the US have long had limits for the presence of melamine in food and the WHO recently issued recommendations which were used by other countries including New Zealand to set their own standards. The 0.05 ppm detection limit currently applied in Taiwan is up to 50 times below recognised and accepted international standards.”
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By GlobalDataNestlé called on Taiwan’s regulators to establish acceptable limits for the presence of melamine in foods in order to distinguish between adulterated products and those which are safe for consumption.
“Nestlé… fails to understand why the authorities are asking Nestlé to temporarily delist these products which, by their own admission, are absolutely safe by any recognised international standards,” the company said. “Nestlé will reintroduce these products as soon as regulatory standards for melamine in food are set in Taiwan.”
