Tapei, Oct 15 - Taiwan has stopped sales of frozen octopus products from China and a brand of imported crackers over fears of melamine contamination, officials said on Wednesday, adding to the fallout from China's tainted milk powder scandal.
The Department of Health ordered an importer on Tuesday to halt sales of "octopus balls" -- popular round dumplings -- from Shandong province in eastern China after almost 900 boxes were sold for use for take-out lunches in central Taiwan.
"This is a precautionary measure," Department of Health spokesman Wang Je-chau said. "We haven't proven that this shipment was problematic. No one has reported getting sick yet."
Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan also ordered that the octopus balls be removed from local supermarket shelves for melamine testing, Taiwan media and a county official said.
Toxic milk powder in China, where at least four children have died and tens of thousands fallen ill, has prompted Taiwan to ban dairy products from China and pull a series of items from supermarket shelves.
Chinese-made products have been recalled in countries throughout the world due to melamine contamination fears. The compound is often added to cheat nutrition tests.
Taiwan decided to check the octopus shipment because Japanese authorities checked a similar shipment from China, Wang said.
Taipei also ordered that Julie's Crackers imported from Malaysia be taken off shelves after a random check found that melamine levels exceeded the local standard. The product's importer said it had complied by recalling the crackers throughout Taiwan.
"We've been selling the crackers for 20 years and we hope the impact of this check to be minimal, so we've ordered the emergency recall," said Chou Chen-yu, spokesman for the importer, Quality Plaza Co. Ltd.
It was not clear if melamine in the crackers came from China or elsewhere, a city health official said.
China has ordered all dairy products made before Sept 14, around when the melamine scandal broke, to be taken off shop shelves and tested for melamine.