Vevey, 2 October 2008 - Taiwan's Department of Health has asked Nestlé to temporarily delist Neslac and KLIM products made in China and sold in Taiwan.
No other Nestlé products are concerned. In line with Nestlé's Corporate Business Principles, the company immediately complied with authorities' request, even though the Department of Health itself confirmed that these products are absolutely safe by any recognized international standards. Moreover, these products had already received official certification as being safe from the Department of Health.
According to international experts the levels of melamine detected in these products by Taiwan's Department of Health are so minute that they are almost certainly present in any food product anywhere in the world. Such minute traces exist in the natural food cycle. Indeed, the EU and the US have long had limits for the presence of melamine in food and the WHO recently issued recommendations which were used by other countries including New Zealand to set their own standards. The 0.05 ppm detection limit currently applied in Taiwan is up to 50 times below recognized and accepted international standards.
The safety of its consumers is Nestlé's top priority. In order to be able to make the vital distinction between products made from milk adulterated with melamine and those containing traces of melamine occurring naturally in the general environment, standards setting limits for the presence of melamine in food are essential. Nestlé therefore welcomes the fact that Taiwan is currently considering such legislation, but fails to understand why the authorities are asking Nestlé to temporarily delist these products which, by their own admission, are absolutely safe by any recognized international standards.
Nestlé will reintroduce these products as soon as regulatory standards for melamine in food are set in Taiwan.