European Commission Extends Controls for Melamine

The ban has been extended to stop the import into the European Union of products from China containing soya or soya products intended for the particular nutritional use of infants and young children.

18/12/08 The European Commission has decided to extend the ban on importing certain products from China because of the risk of melamine contamination. Melamine is an industrial chemical that should not be present in food.

The ban has been extended to stop the import into the European Union of products from China containing soya or soya products intended for the particular nutritional use of infants and young children. The Commission has also extended the testing for melamine contamination to ammonium bicarbonate intended for food and feed, and food and feed containing soya or soya products from China.

The European Commission’s original decision on this issue said that products from China containing milk products should be tested for melamine. Any products found to contain more than 2.5mg/kg of melamine must be withdrawn from the market and destroyed. These requirements came into effect on 15 October 2008 and are laid down in Commission Decision 2008/798/EC.

The Agency’s view is that this latest decision includes products made from whole soya beans from China, even if the beans are subsequently processed outside China. The decision will also cover soy sauce from China. The limit remains the same at 2.5mg/kg.

The Agency has put in place new declarations to implement the latest decision and notified all enforcement bodies of the extensions to the original decision. We continue to actively monitor the situation and will place relevant update on our website. Food alerts will be issued if any action is required of enforcement authorities.