HERSHEY CHOCOLATE COMPANY (OU kosher)
Cadbury Caramello Candy Bar (Dairy)
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate Candy Bar (Dairy)
Cadbury Mini Eggs Sugar Coated Milk Chocolate Candy (Dairy)
Cadbury Roasted Almond Milk Chocolate Candy Bar (Dairy)
Heath Toffee Candy Bar (Dairy)
Cadbury pulls melamine-laced chocolate from China
By MIN LEE, Associated Press
HONG KONG - British candy maker Cadbury announced a recall Monday of chocolate made in its Beijing factory after it was found to contain melamine, the industrial chemical that has sickened tens of thousands of Chinese children.
The 11 recalled items were sold in parts of Asia and the Pacific, the company said in a statement. Cadbury's chocolates sold in the United States were not affected, said a spokesman for Hershey's, Cadbury's sole U.S. distributor.
Meanwhile, Kraft Foods, the maker of Oreo cookies, and Mars, the maker of M&Ms and Snickers candy, questioned the findings of Indonesian tests that identified melamine in samples of their products made in China.
Both Kraft Foods and Mars said they would comply with an Indonesian recall but planned to conduct their own tests and look into the possibility the tainted products were counterfeits.
Melamine-laced baby formula and other dairy products in China have been blamed for sickening nearly 54,000 children and leading to four infant deaths. The industrial chemical, which is high in nitrogen, is believed to have been added to watered-down milk to mask the resulting protein deficiency and fool quality tests.
Preliminary tests showed melamine in Cadbury chocolates produced at the candy maker's Beijing factory, but it was too early to say how much of the chemical was in them, said a Cadbury spokesman who declined to be identified because of company policy.
Another official reached through the company's London office said there was no way the contaminated chocolate could find its way into other countries because the Chinese factory only supplies Australia, Taiwan, Nauru, Hong Kong and Christmas Island.
"That factory in Beijing only exports to those markets. It's only a small factory," said the official. He said Chinese production makes up only 0.5 percent of Cadbury's global sales, and the recalled items are "less than that because it's only chocolate."
The recalled products included Cadbury Dark Chocette, Cadbury Eclairs, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate, Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate and Cadbury Hazelnut Praline Chocolate.
In the United States, Hershey's spokesman Kirk Saville said the Cadbury distributor "has never purchased milk, including powdered milk, from China," and that he was "positive" no Hershey's suppliers receive milk products from the country.
Indonesia's Food and Drug Monitoring Agency said tests last week found melamine in a dozen products distributed nationwide, including M&Ms, Snickers bars and Oreo wafers.
Manufacturers Kraft and Mars questioned the findings.
"We don't use any milk ingredients from China in any Oreo products, no matter where they are made or sold," said Kraft spokeswoman Claire Regan.
Tod Gimbel, Kraft's director of corporate affairs for the Asia Pacific, said the company "was trying to understand what methodology was used" in Indonesia's testing.
Mars, in a statement on its Web site, called the Indonesian results "completely inconsistent" with test findings from other government and independent labs in Asia and Europe.
"The vastly different results give Mars significant reason to question the validity of the Indonesian laboratory results," the company said.
So far, only a local agency has checked the products for melamine, but the levels found were considered very high.
No level of melamine deliberately added to a food product is legal in the United States, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
But the agency said it is conducting a health risk assessment to try to determine if there is a minimal amount that would be acceptable in cases where the chemical finds its way into a product through some other means. For example, melamine could be present in the meat or milk of an animal that was fed tainted feed or it could find its way into food processed in a factory.
Some experts in Asia say small amounts of melamine, which is used to make plastics, may be transferred during food processing.
Guidelines in Hong Kong and New Zealand say melamine in food products is considered safe at 2.5 parts per million or less, though Hong Kong has lowered the level for children under 3 and pregnant or lactating women to 1 part per million.
In China, the government continued its investigation into questionable milk sources.
Police raided dairy farms and milk purchasing stations in northern China, detaining 22 people accused of being involved in a network that manufactured, sold and added melamine to milk, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. Police also seized more than 485 pounds of the chemical.
Chinese officials had previously arrested at least 18 people and detained more than two dozen suspects.
Asian countries continued to tighten controls on Chinese dairy products.
Myanmar's Commerce Ministry said all Chinese dairy imports had been barred since last week, according to the government affiliated weekly Myanmar Times — a significant move because China is the country's biggest trade partner. Chinese dairy products are widely sold in impoverished Myanmar, though there have been no reported cases of illnesses.
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By Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press Writer
Tainted milk scandal broadens as China accuses a dozen new companies of being violators
BEIJING (AP) -- Fifteen more Chinese dairy companies were identified Wednesday as producing milk products contaminated with an industrial chemical, further broadening a scandal affecting products ranging from baby formula to chocolate, authorities said.
The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.
An additional 31 batches of Chinese milk powder were found tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, according to data seen on the food safety administration's Web site Wednesday. Out of the 20 companies on the list, 15 have not been named in previous tests.
The new batches being tested were mostly milk powder products for adults. A previous round of tests found melamine in 69 infant milk powder batches.
The new figure brings to at least 100 the number of tested batches of milk powder found to contain melamine. Dozens of brands sold by more than a score of dairy firms, including some of China's biggest names, have been among those tested.
Tests have also found melamine in 24 batches of liquid milk produced by three of the country's best known dairy firms.
It was a national holiday in China and product safety officials could not be reached for comment.
The Web site quoted the State Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as saying it had tested 265 batches produced by 154 different companies prior to Sept. 14. China has a total of 290 companies making powdered milk, the administration said.
In the most recent tests, nine of the batches containing melamine were produced by the company at the center of the scandal, Sanlu, a 43 percent stake of which is owned by New Zealand dairy cooperative Fonterra. No date for the testing was given.
Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, is used to make plastics and fertilizers and experts say some amount of the chemical may be transferred from the environment during food processing. But in China's case, suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.
The scandal was worsened by an apparent cover-up by companies involved and the ignoring by safety officials of tips and warnings from parents and doctors. Top Sanlu executives and government officials in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, where the company is based, have been forced to resign.
Also on Wednesday, Hong Kong's food safety agency said its tests have found melamine in a Japanese brand's Chinese-made cheesecake. The agency said a sample of Lotte Cream Cheese Cake manufactured by Japan's Lotte China Foods Co. Ltd in mainland China was found to contain melamine.
Hong Kong and Macau authorities earlier detected excessive melamine in Lotte's popular Koala's March chocolate and strawberry cream cookies.
In Thailand, where food inspectors said they are testing nearly 100 imports from China for possible contamination, the country's public health minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, said Wednesday that they should monitor the situation closely but should not "hype up (the issue) too much."
"I did not mean that I am afraid of China, but we have to be concerned about our trade ties because Thailand does a lot of business with China," he said.
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China milk scandal firm asked for cover-up help -
By Ben Blanchard
BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese company at the center of the scare over tainted milk powder had asked for government help to cover up the extent of the problem, state media said on Wednesday in the newest development in the widening scandal.
In the Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily, Shijiazhuang city government spokesman Wang Jianguo said they had been asked by the Sanlu Group for help in "managing" the media response to the case when first told of the issue on August 2, six days before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing.
China's latest food safety problem, involving the addition of the industrial chemical melamine to milk to cheat in quality tests, has caused public outrage and put the spotlight back on deficiencies in industry oversight and weak regulatory bodies.
China has already said the city government in Shijiazhuang, home to the Sanlu Group whose contaminated milk sparked a recall now spread worldwide, sat on a report from the company about the tainting for more than a month, while Beijing hosted the Olympic Games.
"Please can the government increase control and coordination of the media, to create a good environment for the recall of the company's problem products," the People's Daily cited the letter from Sanlu as saying.
"This is to avoid whipping up the issue and creating a negative influence in society," it added.
This week, Reporters Without Borders said Beijing had ordered news of the scandal hushed up ahead of the Olympics.
"Several Chinese journalists have said that it is becoming more and more obvious that the authorities in July prevented an investigation into the toxic milk coming out so as not to tarnish China's image before the Olympics," it said in a statement.
Thousands of children fell ill after drinking the milk, and four died. But the rush of people taking their children to hospital for check-ups appears to be slowing, Xinhua news agency said.
"The work involved with offering free check-ups has turned from an emergency situation to normal," it quoted Wen Honghai, Shijiazhuang's top health official, as saying.
BUNGLING
Countries around the world have banned Chinese dairy imports, or ordered them to be taken off shelves, as it became clear yoghurt and other products were also affected.
Scores of foreign companies have been forced to recall products made with Chinese dairy ingredients, or to reassure customers their goods are safe.
Dairy sales in China dropped too, though Commerce Minister Chen Deming told Xinhua in an interview that sales had begun to bounce back as consumer confidence returned.
"Generally speaking, the sales situation for dairy products around the country has taken a turn for the better," he said.
China has a poor record when it comes to ignoring or glossing over bad news. In 2003, it initially tried to cover up the spread of the respiratory disease SARS.
But Wang, who did not say whether the government complied with the media control request, defended the actions of his colleagues, who he said did send a team at once to probe Sanlu and to look for those suspected of adulterating the milk.
"Yet it was not until September 9 that it was reported to the Hebei provincial government," the newspaper said, referring to the province where Shijiazhuang is situated.
Beijing has already fired several Shijiazhuang officials, including the city's Communist Party chief, for the attempted cover-up.
Wang said the city government had not considered the consequences of their actions.
"We mistakenly thought that taking necessary measures and raising product quality could mitigate the effect and reduce losses," he said.
"The bungling of the best opportunity to report up the handling of the issue caused much harm to people's safety, and seriously affected the image of the Party and the government," Wang added.
He also expressed "deep guilt and pain" for the scandal.
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Connecticut authorities find candy for sale containing chemical associated with tainted Chinese milk - October 1, 2008
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- An industrial chemical blamed for sickening thousands of infants in China was found in candy in four Connecticut stores this week, a state official said Wednesday.
Days after contaminated White Rabbit Creamy Candy was found in California, Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said tests found melamine in bags of the candy sold at two New Haven stores, a West Hartford market and an East Haven store.
"We're concerned, obviously, there may have been bags sold of these before we got to them," Farrell said.
Anyone who has the candy should destroy it, Farrell said.
The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.
Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, is used to make plastics and fertilizers and experts say some amount of the chemical may be transferred from the environment during food processing. But in China's case, suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.
Melamine has been associated with contaminated infant formula and other Chinese products containing milk protein.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government identified 15 more Chinese dairy companies as producing milk products contaminated with melamine, bringing the total to 20 companies. At least 100 batches of milk powder have been found to contain the chemical, according to data on the food safety administration's Web site.
Last week, California health officials announced it discovered traces of melamine in White Rabbit candy it tested. Queensway Foods Company Inc. of California distributed the candy and says it is recalling it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with state and local governments to check for and test products that could possibly be contaminated with melamine. Last Friday, the FDA warned consumers not to consume White Rabbit Candy and Mr. Brown coffee products because of possible melamine contamination.
The vanilla-flavored candy has also been pulled from shelves in Hawaii, Asia and Britain, and tests in Singapore and New Zealand last week found White Rabbit sweets tainted with melamine. The Shanghai-based maker of the candy, Guan Sheng Yuan Co., said last week it was halting production of the sticky, taffy-like confection, an iconic brand beloved by generations of Chinese.
The candy is sold in more than 50 countries throughout Asia and the world, including most of the Chinatowns in the United States. Overseas sales have reached $160 million over the past five years.
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The Hershey Company Has Never Purchased Milk from China
All Hershey Products are Safe to Consume
HERSHEY, PA., September 29, 2008 - Consumer safety and product quality are Hershey’s top priorities. The Hershey Company has never purchased any milk ingredients from China. All Hershey products use the highest-quality ingredients and are completely safe. This includes CADBURY products manufactured and distributed in the United States by The Hershey Company.
Consumers with any questions regarding this issue should call our Consumer Relations line at 1-800-468-1714.