Over the past couple of weeks, there were widespread news about melamine tinted milk powder from giant Chinese milk producer Sanlu which caused kidney stones and complications in infants and children, killing at least 3. Over the days, with pressure from various quarters and some reports claimed, from the New Zealand government, Chinese officials and chairwoman of Sanlu were sacked. There were also reports that the Chinese government and Sanlu were slow to react to this crisis. Consumers, primarily parents, queued for refunds and countries such as Singapore issued bans and demand official explanations. Hong Kong also found yogurt from Yili tinted with melamine.
The fact was greedy humans used melamine (a chemical used to make plastics and tanning in leather) to disguise low levels of proteins in milk so that they can sell the it at face value. It some how also 'escaped' detection in lab tests. You can find here further definitions on Google on what melamine is and its uses, including:
- Melamine is an organic base with the chemical formula C3H6N6, with the IUPAC name 1,3,5-triazine-2,4,6-triamine. It is only slightly soluble in water.
- Solid-colored laminate material that is both durable and easy to clean. It is stain and mark-resistant and also heat-tolerant.
- A slick plastic-like material used to cover a substrate of particleboard or MDF.
- A strong aromatic heterocyclic base, tri-amino-triazine, used, in combination with formaldehyde to manufacture melamine resins such as Formica.
2 comments:
Non bendable very durable plastic is made from melamine .. eg. spoon, plates, cups. Imagine that in your milk!
Don't have to imagine. It is already there. And melamine is in traces of our food, too. Traces small enough that our body can remove, though.
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