| ■ WHO sets limitations on use of melamine | 2008.12.08 |
| WHO sets limitations on use of melamine The World Health Organization said Friday that tiny traces of the chemical melamine are not harmful in most foods, but it joined the U.S. and EU in setting a strict limit that regulators should impose before pulling products off the shelf. Melamine was recently found to have contaminated milk products around the world and has been implicated in the sickening of nearly 300,000 babies in China and killing at least six infants there. A meeting of food safety experts held by WHO in Ottawa, Canada, decided on Friday that while there is no good reason to have any melamine in food products at all, a maximum of 0.2 milligrams of melamine per kilogram of body weight can be tolerated per day. Jorgen Schlundt, WHO's director for food safety, said that threshold is lower than the European Union's limitation of 0.5 milligrams. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which originally set its limit at 0.63 milligrams, later reduced its tolerable daily intake to 0.063 milligrams. WHO's guidance is used by governments to set their minimum food safety standards. |