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GENEVA - Switzerland's Health Ministry said Monday it was halting sales of three Chinese-made food products which contained traces of melamine, but stressed there was no grave risk to public health.
"To-date, small traces of melamine were found in two types of biscuits and a brand of caramel sweets," the Health Ministry said in a statement, adding that there was "no reason to fear a danger to health in Switzerland."
In a separate statement, authorities in the canton of Geneva identified the three products as White Rabbit sweets from China, Milk Cookies S&P from Thailand, and LemonPuff Munchee biscuits from Sri Lanka.
Sales of White Rabbit's milk-flavoured sweets were halted in China last week after they were found to contain melamine -- an industrial chemical that was added to Chinese milk to make its protein content seem higher.
The Swiss Health Ministry said that the levels of melamine in the products would only pose a danger to children aged up to 3 years "if they ate more than one kilogram of the biscuits every day for a long period," and that there was no danger for adults."
However, this contamination with melamine is still not to be tolerated, and the products concerned will be immediately taken off the shelves," the statement said.
Tainted milk has killed at least four children and sickened 53,000 in China in a widening scandal that has put a spotlight on the country's lax food safety standards and lack of corporate accountability.
Many multinational corporations have become implicated, with Unilever recalling milk powder after finding melamine in its Lipton tea products, Cadbury ordering back all mainland China-made chocolate products and Heinz recalling hundreds of cases of baby food. - AFP/vm
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