The deliberate placing of the substance melamine in baby formula and milk products, quite possibly, ranks right up there among the most reprehensible acts known to be committed against humans by humans.
Were it not for the deaths of four Chinese babies and the tens of thousands more that have fallen ill, this unscrupulous practice could easily have become even more widespread with disastrous consequences for the world at large, especially when one considers that China is such a huge exporter of its products.
As of Thursday, 22 Chinese companies had been implicated in the scandal and there were rumblings that other international companies might be involved as well. And if no one has figured it out as yet, the reason this was being done was money. Some nefarious scientist found a way to falsely boost the nutritional value of milk and rather than blow the whistle, other despicable people followed suit with no thought to the impact their actions could have on human life.
As a result, countries around the world, particularly those that import Chinese products, have begun large-scale testing for melamine in not only milk and milk products but also a variety of other consumable items. The list of contaminated items, which have been and will be recalled, is steadily growing.
How the scam worked is that the company manufacturing the baby formula and milk products would buy quality milk, and then deliberately water it down until its nutritional value was all but lost. Then, it would add dollops of melamine and hey presto, when food inspectors tested the products they appeared to have the correct balance of nutrition and passed inspection. The company gained, albeit temporarily, because it was able to produce way more formula using the same quantity of milk it always purchased. But at what cost? Companies found to have been committing this criminal activity, which in literal terms is adding plastic to food, should be forced out of business or at the very least, be banned from producing food products for several years.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, melamine is a white crystalline substance, sometimes referred to as cyanuramide. It is made up of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen. A German scientist, Justus von Liebig, is credited with having developed it in the 1830s and it was later used industrially in the manufacture of plastics and laminates. Prized for its durability, it was and still is used to produce brightly coloured dishware and to create a resin coating for wood and textiles.
Clearly, this is not something meant to be ingested in the human stomach, particularly by babies. As the current crisis has shown ingesting it can cause kidney stones and renal failure in infants and in some cases death.
In response, the Ministry of Health here, through its Food and Drug Department says it has been checking the local market for any of the products listed and as of Thursday had not found any. However, since the list of contaminates is by no means exhausted as yet, the Food and Drug Department still has a lot of work to do. Ideally, the department should, as its counterpart organizations in other countries are doing, be conducting random tests on imported food items that contain milk. However, since it is unlikely that the department is geared to take such action, it has done the next best thing – issued a caveat emptor; let the buyer beware. The onus is now on the purchaser to look out for his/her own health.
In the wake of this scandal and perhaps before the next one waiting on the horizon erupts, perhaps the Food and Drug Department should, in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant agencies take another hard look at imported food items being sold here. A random check at the markets and some supermarkets would reveal that the set rules are not being followed. There are still too many products on sale with labels written in a foreign language for which there is no English translation.
At the same time, given the heavy promotion of the ‘Grow More Food’ campaign, perhaps the question that needs to be asked is why are the imports of canned, frozen and microwavable foods growing rather than declining. In many instances, fresh alternatives are already available. This needs to be addressed, especially in the light of growing food shortages worldwide; there might be the temptation to place other harmful additives in preserved food. The Ministries of Health and Agriculture need to be heard on this issue.
