UN Tightens Melamine Use

The United Nations’ food standards body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, has restricted melamine use in powdered infant formula with a new limit of one milligram per kilogram, which is equivalent to the US limit of one part per million.

Under the new standards, the maximum level of the chemical in other food, as well as animal feed, will be 2.5 milligrams per kilogram.

The commission, jointly run by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Health Organisation (WHO), said standards will reduce food poisoning, which affects one-third of the world’s population.

WHO food safety expert Angelika Tritscher said the intentional addition of melamine to food to falsify protein content is unacceptable.

The guideline follows the Chinese scandal in 2008 that led to the death of six infants and left 300,000 babies ill.