This past Friday, the FDA announced a “safe” level for melamine in baby formula which is lower than any levels found in baby formula in the US to date. The threshold is 1 part per million of melamine in formula, as long as a related chemical isn’t present. The FDA will not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid is also found.
After hearing about melamine being found in baby formula manufactured in the US, members of Congress, a national consumer group and the Illinois attorney general demanded a national recall. The FDA feels this doesn’t make sense since the levels found show no evidence of being dangerous.
To this date, here is where melamine has been found:
- Nestle’s Good Start Supreme Infant Formula with Iron had two positive tests for melamine on one sample
- Mead Johnson’s Infant Formula Powder, Enfamil LIPIL with Iron had three positive tests on one sample for cyanuric acid.
- Abbott Laboratories, told the AP that in-house tests had detected trace levels of melamine in its infant formula.
Melamine can be in cleaning solution used for some food processing equipment and can legally be used in some food packaging, which can rub off onto food.
According to MSNBC, “There is a gap between the concentration that the FDA detected in formula and the agency’s estimate of how much melamine could contaminate food from the manufacturing process. The expected contamination from processing — 15 parts per billion — is about one-tenth the amount that the agency has detected in infant formula. FDA officials have not responded to questions from the AP this week about how that gap might be explained.”
