The Belizean Agricultural Health Authority today sounded a warning about contaminated milk products. Three children have already died and thousands more are sick in china after they were fed infant formula contaminated with the toxic chemical melamine. It is a cheap and deadly protein additive mixed into baby formula, milk, yogurt, and in other milk products produced by three main companies: Sanlu Company Limited, Mengniu Dairy Group, and Bright Dairy. The good news is that none of those products are on shelves in Belize but BAHA’s Dr. Michael DeShield says we still need to be alert.
Dr. Michael DeShield, BAHA
“It is a milk powder, milk powder is used for other products. We have a network which is the WHO established network. We were aware of this alert before it even became public so we were watching that and the network actually gives us a list of the products that have been associated with contamination with melamine and we have that list and we really don’t have any of those products here. But of course there is always what they call the informal market and that is something that as you can see is very difficult sometimes to check. But we’re working closely with Ministry of Health and they will be checking shelves to see if anything comes in, slipped in or something like that.”
Keith Swift,
Where do the powder milk products we use come from?
Dr. Michael DeShield,
“Well most of our products come actually from Switzerland and we also import from South America, Mexico, the Netherlands, and the US for baby formulas and we have very reputable firms that are doing the importation.
The melamine has a high nitrogen content and unscrupulous individuals would mix the milk powder with this so that it would pass the text as far as nitrogen. Nitrogen is an indication of protein levels so if you have nigh nitrogen people could mistake it for high protein and so this is what they do so that when it goes through tests it shows up as nitrogen and people would assume that it is a high protein diet and use it. It is a cheap product, it is very dangerous, we’ve had outbreaks of this in pet food last year and there was a big scare in that.”
Dr. DeShield says that to be better than sorry, he would strongly advise against purchasing milk products from across the border in Chetumal or Melchor unless you are certain it doesn’t contain melamine. Melamine can cause kidney failure and death.
