Chefs and foodies Code Red: Milk and any milk product manufactured in China might have melamine.
The current list of companies that are looking at potential recalls grew on Friday as reports of foods tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which has been blamed in the deaths of four Chinese infants, spread to a growing range of products.
The head of China's quality watchdog has resigned over the tainted baby milk scandal that had already killed the four children and sickened nearly 53,000 others.
The chemical melamine blamed for causing kidney stones and kidney failure has been detected in formula milk powder from 22 dairies across China.
U.S. officials are warning Americans not to ingest several Mr. Brown instant coffee and milk tea products that were made in China, due to concerns of melamine contamination, according to Reuters. The King Car Food Industrial Co Ltd. recalled the following products on Friday.
Reuters lists the recalled products as:
* Mr. Brown Mandheling Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
* Mr. Brown Arabica Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
* Mr. Brown Blue Mountain Blend Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
* Mr. Brown Caramel Macchiato Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
* Mr. Brown French Vanilla Instant Coffee (3-in-1)
* Mr. Brown Mandhling Blend instant Coffee (2-in-1)
* Mr. Brown Milk Tea (3-in-1)
So how do we avoid the milk contaimination?
Dr Leong Lai Peng, Food science and technology lecturer from the National University of Singapore urges consumers buy only food that contain milk from countries that are major producers of milk, such as Australia.
She also advises avoiding cheap products. 'With cheap products, there is a chance it is made with milk from a country that sells milk cheaply, such as China,' she said.
So far this has been a problem with only milk from China and the contaimination has not spread to milk here in the U.S. There is no state by state listing of products to avoid but to be safe, just be very aware of milk from across the seas.
Picture provided by: lifesave.org and bringinggoodhome.wordpress.com