Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Melamine contamination spreads to eggs

First pet food, then the tragic milk and baby formula contamination. Next up on the list of Chinese food products contaminated with melamine? Eggs. Over the weekend, eggs imported into Hong Kong have been found to be contaminated with high levels of melamine, the culprit in the recent milk and baby formula tragedies. 

According to a report in the NY Times, this discovery raises new concerns that a far wider range of China-produced food could be contaminated with melamine than previously thought.

The melamine probably got into the eggs through tainted animal feed fed to chickens, who then passed the melamine into their eggs. The discovery was announced Saturday by a Hong Kong government agency. The agency said that the eggs had been imported from a farm in the northeast section of China. The melamine level found in the eggs was almost double the legal limit for food sold in Hong Kong.

According to the report, scientists in China are also worried that tainted animal feed could result in poisonous meat and seafood.

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