28 Nov, 2008 - Nestle has said that contaminated animal feed was responsible for levels of melamine discovered in two brands of its formula milk in South Africa – giving credence to the possibility that the industrial chemical may be able to cross from the feed to the food chain.
The statement by Nestle, the world’s largest food and nutrition company, runs against the belief held by many experts and food safety bodies that melamine ingested by animals does not pass into the food chain, as reported exclusively by Feedinfo News Service. It challenges the perception that the industrial chemical is either excreted by the animal or is diluted to such an extent that any remaining traces are practically undetectable in human food.
The announcement by Nestle South Africa comes after a batch of the company’s Nido Growing up Milk for one-year-olds and a consignment of Lactogen Starter Infant Formula with iron were recalled by the KwaZulu-Natal health department earlier this week.
A Nestle statement said: “Testing led to the discovery of melamine in a number of samples of cattle feed which is predominantly used in winter, which explains the presence of melamine traces in these batches. Consequently, Nestlé has also taken steps to ensure that the cattle feed used by its South African milk producers is melamine free.”
KwaZulu-Natal Health department spokesman Leon Mbangwa said the batches, which were manufactured in June and July 2008, contained melamine levels of 1.6mg/kg in the Lactogen product, while the Nido sample contained 3mg/kg.
"This is more than the internationally accepted level of 1mg/kg for foodstuffs intended for infants and young children, such as infant formula, applied by the department of health as a cut-off level,” said Mr Mbangwa.
He added that information from Nestle indicated that the product was made in South Africa and contained only locally produced ingredients such as fresh milk.
"The manufacturer has determined that the source of the contamination derived from animal feed used by some of its suppliers of fresh milk,” he said.
A statement from Nestle said that all its product both in South Africa and world-wide were safe and that “no Nestlé product is made from milk adulterated with melamine”.
The company said that following the melamine crisis in China in mid September, it had taken total control over its milk supply chain in South Africa. Systematic melamine testing for all raw milk purchased in South Africa was immediately introduced and every batch of dairy products is now tested for melamine prior to release from the factory, the food and nutrition giant confirmed.
Instead Nestle stated it believes the contamination of its powdered milk was caused by feed given to cattle that produced the milk used as a raw material in the manufacture of the baby formula.