S. Korea: Melamine Found in Chocolate Products From China (Snickers M&M KitKat)

Korea Times ^ | 10/04/08

[TigerLikesRooster]

Melamine Found in Chocolate Products From China

South Korea's food watchdog has detected quantities of melamine, an industrial chemical, in chocolate products from foodstuff giants Nestle SA, Mars Inc. and South Korea's Lotte that were manufactured in China, Yonhap News reported Saturday.

The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said 2.38 parts per million (ppm) and 1.78 ppm of the toxic substance was discovered in samples of M&M's Milk and Peanut Snickers Fun Size products, respectively, from Mars Korea.

A Kit Kat bar from Nestle Korea was also found to contain 2.89 ppm of melamine, the agency said. The latest discoveries brought the number of locally tainted food items to 10 amid a broadening scandal over Chinese dairy products.

Melamine is a nitrogen-based chemical that can pose serious health risks if ingested frequently or in large quantities. It is used widely in kitchen utensils, but if added to food items the nitrogen can artificially increase protein levels, translating into higher prices.

Chinese health officials have said the use of melamine in dairy products has killed at least four infants and left 54,000 others ailing from kidney stones or other illnesses.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[Boiling Pots]

Well, they should just ship the poison to the United States, as we cannot dare offend China, we’d have no choice but to eat it.

[Calpernia]

Name brand distribution wide products now. Ping your lists please.

[Mrs.Z]

Just in time for halloween!

Will everything be labeled as to the source?

[kittymyrib]

Funny that we haven’t heard a peep about this latest poisoning of our children by either Nestle’s or Mars or our pathetic government’s toothless “watchdogs.” If they don’t say anything maybe we won’t notice our children dying.

You can be certain I won’t be buying any candy to hand out this Halloween. I’m not into poisoning our neighbor children.

[w1andsodidwe]

I really blame the American companies that are buying this stuff from China and not checking it. After all the pets died last year it should have been a warning, but no it was just dogs and cats so who cares.

Where are the American inspectors? Are suppliers and their supplies not checked regularly? I work for a food company with a brand just as powerful and well known as these. I would like to think that someone would be testing the ingredients before using them.

[Aria]

I can’t believe (well I guess I can) that China is making so much of the world’s food! I’m trying to follow Jack LaLane as much as possible - “If man made it don’t eat it”.

[TrevorSnowsrap]

So a few babies end up dying. Maybe we can bailout these Chinese companies.

[TYVets]

Not only is M & M's trying to poison us, they also sponsor Kyle Bush.

[AuntB]

“Name brand distribution wide products now. “

Isn’t that special? I know some ‘deadheads’ around here I’d like to send a shipping container full of them to! And no matter what the free traitors do to us, we just bail ‘em out some more!!

Deadheads: Free Trade, Globalism and the Grateful Dead

http://www.freerepublic.com/~auntb/

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

I only witnessed the phenomena once, in Eugene, Oregon about 15 years ago. The ordinary quiet college city was suddenly transformed into a vertical and horizontal display of psychedelic automotive wonder. We’d just arrived in town to visit friends and every street we turned on was full of them.

Deadheads. Adoring, if not addicted fans of the rock group The Grateful Dead, filled hand painted buses and vans. Some of them even had a passenger car welded to the top of buses going ‘double decker’. Driving pinched between the stoned drivers of these colorful unique vehicles reminded me of being a child riding along in a boat at Disneyland in the “It’s a small world” attraction with MUCH different music and no cute dolls, just hairy pitted, sagging breasted, single minded, loud, obnoxious hippies.

Over the years, having been involved in political forum discussions, a few posters have established themselves as self anointed experts on all things economic from trade to cheap labor. It’s always about the ‘bottom line’ and ANY means justify that end, whether ethical, moral, exploitive or illegal, just make that dollar and take it from anyone vulnerable that you can. And anyone who dares object to being the target of such less-than-honorable economic schemes is well, just useless and annoying, at best.

They are the ones that are always for any trade deal any where on earth pushed out of the White House and congress, current and past. They don’t really care what the endless mountains of pages contain save two things. Will it get them cheap labor and cheap imports? In other words can they eventually screw their own customers out of their jobs.

Globalism, not community is what matters and they don’t worry about the long term. These are the same type are who came to America and almost wiped out the herds of buffalo, just because they could. After the civil war they called them carpetbaggers. That’s why you never see this type in farming, crafting, building or anything that must depend on the future of a community. And they are just plain too lazy to indulge in honest work. But somehow they always manage to be in our faces to set us straight.

Deadheads. Dazed to the pain they cause in the world around them, blindly following their idolatry through town after town, leaving a trail of garbage and discontent. But they aren’t as harmless as the rock groupies. Our new globalist adoring Deadheads destroy industries, jobs, security, communities and lives.

And then they tell us how stupid, uneducated and unenlightened we are because we dare object that it is our pocket they are picking to pay for their instant monetary gratification.

Deadheads. Self indulgent, arrogant, rude and smelly. They’re just lacking the pretty colors.

It’s a small world, after all.

[palmer]

Just in time for halloween!
Will everything be labeled as to the source?

Not once it is removed from the outer bag and doled out. All it takes is one moron on your block.

[Eyes Unclouded]

do we get our kitkats from china?

[VictoryGal]

Normally I do not like shilling for any company. But Hershey's seems to be a safe bet this Halloween...

The Hershey Company Has Never Purchased Milk from China
All Hershey Products are Safe to Consume

[Cicero]

I’m still waiting for the shoe to fall. Is the FDA or are other authorities paying any attention to this at all?

So far, only White Rabbit Chinese candy has been mentioned as carrying this melamine poisoning into the United States. But is anyone looking? Are Mars and Nestle testing their products?

The feds tried to sweep the dog food scandal under the rug, until some worried veterinarians spoke out about it. Now, here we go again. And the press is too busy carrying water for Obama to pay much attention. Sure, it’s a good story, but the Messiah is a better story, as far as they’re concerned.

[AuntB]

“So a few babies end up dying. Maybe we can bailout these Chinese companies.”

Evidently!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2097164/posts

Banking Bill Bails Out China

[Zhang Fei]

I really blame the American companies that are buying this stuff from China and not checking it.

These are usually joint ventures with the Chinese as the controlling partners. Note that the Chinese have their version of the Department of Ag that should be checking meat and dairy products. The problem with importing foreign (probably Australian or Kiwi, due to transportation costs) ingredients is the 100% tariffs levied by the Chinese government.

[AuntB]

Didn’t Hershey move it’s operations to Mexico?

[Lancey Howard]

Melamine is a nitrogen-based chemical that can pose serious health risks if ingested frequently or in large quantities. It is used widely in kitchen utensils, but if added to food items the nitrogen can artificially increase protein levels, translating into higher prices.

Huh?

[King Moonracer]

Send in the lawyers. Time for MBAs to replace lawyers as the villains of our world.

“Packaged by”, “Distributed by”, “Manufactured by the USA”...with cheap poison from China. Nothing but lies. I bet those half-truths earned bigger bonuses for those MBA thugs that import this stuff. The bitter irony here is that lawyers may protect our food... Or is that just wishful thinking.

Its not free trade when only one side knows or intentionally obfuscates the facts!

[TigerLikesRooster]

quality test checks for level of nitrogen in a food product to determine level of protein content. Put melamine into food fools the test, producing higher nitrogen content, that is, higher protein content.

[Jakarta ex-pat]

Food terrorism.
The next 911?

[mysterio]

Are American Nestle products made in China as well?

[TigerLikesRooster]

China is said to have $300bn ‘investment’ in Fannie & Freddie. Obama said China is wonderful. The two reasons why Bush and MSM are trying their best to sweep this story under the rug.

[cherry]

is there any chocolate bar still made in the us?

[AuntB]

“Its not free trade when only one side knows or intentionally obfuscates the facts!”

Exactly!

[TigerLikesRooster]

They didn't say one way or the other.

[Tamar1973]

I can understand a motive to artificially boost the protein in things like cat/dog food but candy?!?

[Iron Munro]

Not only is M & M's trying to poison us, they also sponsor Kyle Bush.

Is there no bottom to their perfidiousness?

[TigerLikesRooster]

They put it into baby milk, too.

[VictoryGal]

> Didn’t Hershey move it’s operations to Mexico?

Regrettably, some did move. But not all. US production was reduced but not eliminated,
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/manufacturing/2007-02-15-hershey-cuts_x.htm

Trying to find the least evil option for Halloween... If there is a company that is pure US, lemme know. It looks like Hershey is still mostly in the US still, and not using any China ingredients, so they still win, although in a flawed way.

[greyfoxx39]

I'm going to finish eating the big bag of M&Ms I have. I've been watching the 'net for more on this.

Further tests find Mars products safe

I'm almost 70, and I've lived through many scares that this or that is going to kill me...if I reacted to every one of them, I'd be sitting on a mountaintop eating raw grain and drinking goat's milk...and THEN someone would tell me there's radiation in the air!

From the above link:

"After a series of tests for melamine, Hong Kong authorities have passed all Mars products, including Snickers and M&Ms, as clear of melamine and safe for consumption.

“We are gratified, although not surprised, by the Hong Kong government's results. They add to the overwhelming body of evidence that our high quality products are clear of melamine,” said Khaled Rabbani, Mars Incorporated Director of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs for Asia Pacific. “Consumers can be assured that they can continue to enjoy the Mars products they have loved for years.”

The new tests results announced by the Hong Kong authorities cast further doubt on the validity of the recent results announced by the Indonesian BPOM, which conflict with all analytical results received from governmental agencies and independent laboratories across Asia and Europe."

[Cold Heart]

The article you refered to said they would be opening a plant in Mexico and also “outsourcing” some products.

Mr. Hershey was very patriotic and philanthropic while he was alive. Sad to see such companies wind their way down hill.

[Vaduz]

Everybody send a box of chocolate to congress before the stuff is pulled of the market.

[Vaduz]

How many boxes of the stuff is being sent to congress?.

[okokie]

I believe Hershey candy is still made in Hershey, Pa. Their factory is still there.

A earlier post said they moved factory to Mexico??

Does anyone know for sure? I want to know what candy to buy for Halloween.

[w1andsodidwe]

These are usually joint ventures with the Chinese as the controlling partners. Note that the Chinese have their version of the Department of Ag that should be checking meat and dairy products. The problem with importing foreign (probably Australian or Kiwi, due to transportation costs) ingredients is the 100% tariffs levied by the Chinese government.

Don't make excuses. It just should never happen. I know how protective we are of our brand. We would never allow a foreign government to dictate to us.

[Myrddin]

My wife and I just made another "candy run" to Sam's in Idaho Falls yesterday. It was for big boxes of various candies, cookies and beef jerky to restock the vending machine at the police station. I don't eat that junk, but obviously many people in the police department and city hall eat enough to require a restocking run about once a month. It's not good news.

[Cicero]

Clinton signed the most favored nation trade treaty with China, but Bush has been very dedicated to increasing trade with China, presumably on behalf of his donors.

Unbalanced trade with China is one of the primary reasons for our economic difficulties, as I think you know.

[ottbmare]

Hershey's seems to be a safe bet this Halloween...

Thank God, if I can't eat chocolate my life has no meaning.

[acoulterfan]

Even Sees is suspect! Their website says they get their ingredients “worldwide”

http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/photos/sees02_08.html

[ReneeLynn]

http://www.madeinusa.com/

But they do have Nestle listed if you search for ‘chocolate bars’. I guess you could visit the company websites and ask more questions.

[Lancey Howard]

Thank you!

[COBOL2Java]

Yeah, but, but, the manufacturing costs in China are so much less! More profits, right? < /sarcasm off >

[COBOL2Java]

Snopes says partly true:

In February 2007, Hershey's announced it would be cutting more than ten percent of its workforce and closing some of its U.S. plants. It expects to do away with about 1,500 jobs over the next three years from its current workforce of more than 13,000 and also plans to reduce the number of manufacturing lines it operates by almost a third. The company is building a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico, that it says will be focused on both low-value added products and on emerging markets, and it is setting up a joint manufacturing venture in China with Lotte Confectionery of South Korea.

[thatjoeguy]

UGH!! All my favs!!!

That’s it, time to invade!!!!!!

Like Fiji or someplace nice so I don’t need a visa to get there :)

JB

[VictoryGal]

> Mr. Hershey was very patriotic and philanthropic while he was alive. Sad to see such companies wind their way down hill.

It is. Unfortunately today’s captains of industry care exclusively about the bottom line, and not about doing what’s right.

[metmom]

You already did. It’s just me and granny for now....

[JACKRUSSELL]

A ping list dedicated to exposing the quality, safety and security issues of anything “Made in China”.


Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.

(This can be a high volume ping list.)

[metmom]

I really blame the American companies that are buying this stuff from China and not checking it. After all the pets died last year it should have been a warning, but no it was just dogs and cats so who cares.

There were a number of us who expressed concern that this could be getting into the human food supply. The companies didn't seem to think that was likely so it wasn't an issue.

Guess who was right?