Melamine in global food chain: experts

11-01-2008 | AP

The state-run media admits the industrial chemical is regularly added to animal feed

Panama Star BEIJING. First it was baby milk formula. Then, dairy-based products from yogurt to chocolate.

Now chicken eggs have been contaminated with melamine, and an admission by state-run media that the industrial chemical is regularly added to animal feed in China is fueling fears the problem could be more widespread, affecting fish, meat and who knows what else.

Peter Dingle, a toxicity expert in Perth, Australia, said, however, that aside from the tainted baby formula that killed at least four Chinese infants and left 54,000 hospitalized, it is unlikely more humans will get sick from melamine.

The amount in a few servings of bacon, for instance, would simply be too low, he said.

But Dingle and others said China should have cracked down sooner on feed companies that have boosted their earnings by fortifying their products with the chemical.