MANILA, Philippines—Liquid and powdered milk, candy, biscuits, chocolate bars and drinks, and yogurt with dairy components from China are now banned in the country.

The Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) Tuesday imposed the ban amid growing fears over the safety of dairy products made in China where four children have died and more than 50,000 have fallen ill after drinking milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Melamine has been found in infant formula and other milk products from 22 of China’s dairy companies. Suppliers trying to cut costs are believed to have added it to watered-down milk because its high nitrogen content masks the resulting protein deficiency.

In an advisory, BFAD Director Leticia Gutierrez directed all importers and distributors of “registered milk products from China to immediately stop temporarily from further importing, distributing, selling and offering for sale the aforesaid products.”

The ban stays “until it is assured that (these) are safe for human consumption,” Virginia Francia Laboy, BFAD Policy, Planning and Advocacy Division officer in charge, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

The BFAD refused to give a list of the products to be tested. But the Inquirer saw the names of popular chocolate and candy brands in the matrix being drafted at the agency’s main office in Muntinlupa City.

Though milk and milk products from China would be easy to spot, Laboy acknowledged it would be harder to list food products that might have originated from other countries but used milk-products from China as ingredients.

“We have the records of all registered products. We will have to check them one by one,” she said.

Arroyo instructions

In Malacañang, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told reporters that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had instructed him to see to it that the scandal over the melamine-tainted milk was investigated immediately.

“The instruction of the President is to see to it that this is looked into and investigated and take the necessary steps to prevent the proliferation in our market that might cause injuries to our babies,” Ermita said.

He also relayed Ms Arroyo’s instructions to certain agencies to prevent the smuggling of milk and other dairy products from China, and to confiscate them if they had already entered the country.

No list of banned products issued

The BFAD has ordered the recall of all affected products in stores and supermarkets as it started testing samples found in supermarkets and grocery stores in Metro Manila, as well as Cavite and Laguna, for any presence of melamine.

Laboy advised those who have already bought milk products from China to stop consuming them.

The BFAD has chosen not to issue any list of banned products because the agency is discouraging consumers from buying unregistered milk and milk products from China, she said.

Maintaining that it did not authorize the selling of any infant formula made in China, the BFAD advised consumers “not to purchase and use outright infant formula from China that might have been brought into the country through unauthorized means.”

Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla said the BFAD decided to implement a general, temporary ban on all China-made milk products because “even in China, it has not been determined how extensive the contamination is.”

Warning against repacked milk

“We wanted to err on the side of caution,” Padilla said.

He warned consumers against buying repacked milk usually sold in small stores and flea markets, saying that in the absence of labels detailing the source, the product should be presumed to have come from China.

The BFAD also appealed to local agencies to search for and report “infant formula and milk products manufactured in China that might have been brought into the country through unauthorized means.”

Unfamiliar with melamine

Following the BFAD memorandum, Laboy said some supermarkets had already voluntarily pulled out Chinese milk products from their shelves as early as Tuesday morning.

The BFAD Tuesday prepared to extract samples from 15 liquid milk products made in China which agency inspectors bought from different grocery stores and supermarkets in Quezon City, Manila and Parañaque and from towns in Cavite and Laguna.

Though most of the sample being tested are unknown brands, with labels all in Chinese characters, there were a few popular brands.

BFAD inspectors are also expected to bring in more products for testing, analysts in the laboratory preparing the sample said.

Laboy said the testing would take a long time, since this is the first time the laboratory will have to look for the chemical melamine.

“Melamine is not a common food additive so we will have to make some adjustments to our procedures. We will need to do a lot of validation (of findings),” she said.

Global extent unknown

Food safety authorities do not know how many countries have been affected by melamine-contaminated milk from China, and have warned against tainted infant formula illegally crossing borders, a World Health Organization (WHO) official said Tuesday.

Anthony Hazzard, WHO Western Pacific regional adviser on food safety, said the International Food Safety Authorities (Infosan) network of 167 countries was still trying to get a better picture of the flow of tainted milk from China.

Infosan has advised countries “to particularly focus on monitoring infant formula that may have illegally crossed borders” he said.

China has recalled milk it exported to Bangladesh, Burundi, Gabon, Yemen and Burma (Myanmar), but it was not clear if the products sent there were contaminated or the recall was just precautionary, and if any have been sickened in those countries due to tainted milk, he added.

Baby formula and other milk products have been pulled from stores around China and Chinese dairy products have been recalled or banned in Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Alaska assurance

Amid the scare, Alaska Milk Corp. said it had not imported from China skimmed milk powder as an ingredient in any of its products.

Alaska Milk locally manufactures and distributes liquid, powdered and ready-to-drink milk products under brand names Alaska, Carnation, Alpine, Milkmaid and Liberty.

“Our skimmed milk powder and UHT products primarily come from New Zealand, Australia and US,” Santiago A. Polido, Alaska vice president for corporate affairs, said in a statement. With reports from Michael Lim Ubac and Associated Press