Nestle criticises Taiwan's ban on milk products
Posted: 03 October 2008 0249 hrs

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GENEVA: Global food giant Nestle on Thursday fought back against a Taiwanese move to ban its milk products, questioning why products deemed safe for consumption had to be taken off the shelves.

The world's biggest food company also urged Taiwanese authorities to adopt "science-based standards" on melamine levels, pointing out that melamine is a substance occurring naturally in the environment.

Earlier on Thursday, Taiwan's health minister said that six Nestle milk products were banned from sale after they were found to contain the industrial chemical melamine.

Several countries have moved to ban products made with milk from China after some food items were found contaminated with melamine, which is normally used to make plastic.

The tainted products have killed at least four children and sickened 53,000 in mainland China, the Chinese government has said previously.

Nestle said in a statement that it has complied with the order to temporarily delist Neslac and KLIM products which are made in China and sold in Taiwan.

But it argued that Taiwan's Department of Health had itself "confirmed that these products are absolutely safe" by international standards.

"Moreover, these products had already received official certification as being safe from the Department of Health," it added.

"Nestle ... fails to understand why the authorities are asking Nestle to temporarily delist these products, which by their own admission, are absolutely safe by any recognised international standards," said the Swiss group.

It pointed out that the levels of melamine found in the products were "so minute that they are almost certainly present in any food product anywhere in the world".

In addition, it said that melamine limits - 0.05 ppm - currently applied in Taiwan are up to 50 times below the accepted international standard.

It urged the Taiwanese authorities to set standards limiting melamine which are "science-based".

Nestle spokesman Robin Tickle told AFP that the problem is that "there is no official standard limit in Taiwan", and that the melamine limit applied there was so minute that it could only be detected with a special machine.

"In order to be able to make the vital distinction between products made from milk adulterated with melamine and those containing traces of melamine occurring naturally in the general environment, standards setting limits for the presence of melamine in food are essential," said Nestle.

On Thursday, a diplomatic source told AFP that China has vowed to halt dairy exports until it can eliminate the threat from tainted milk.

Meanwhile, governments' move to deal with the food safety issue has affected food companies including Nestle and Cadbury.

In September, Hong Kong authorities had ordered a recall of Nestle's Dairy Farm UHT Pure Milk product, after discovering traces of melamine in samples from Heilongjiang.

Cadbury had also ordered a recall of China-made chocolates in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia after finding traces of melamine in samples. - AFP/de