Melamine update: novelty products withdrawn
Friday 17 October 2008
The Food Standards Agency has today issued a food alert about novelty food products from China, including chocolate-flavoured 'willy spread', containing melamine.
Melamine is an industrial chemical that should not be present in food. Milk products containing melamine have been at the centre of a major food incident in China.
An Agency spokesperson said: 'This is a first. We’ve never had to put out an alert before on "willy spread" – chocolate-flavoured or otherwise. But on a serious note, if anybody has used any of the affected products they shouldn’t worry, the risk from the melamine in these products is low and it is very unlikely to be harmful.'
The levels of melamine detected in the affected products were 126mg/kg, 153mg/kg and 259mg/kg respectively. The European Commission has said that products found with more than 2.5mg/kg must be withdrawn from the market and destroyed.
The products were manufactured in Zhongshan, China by Le Bang and imported into the UK by Scobie (Llarn) Ltd. They have been sold to a number of Ann Summers premises in the UK.
Scobie (Llarn) Ltd has removed the affected products from sale.
Product details
The products are:
'I love you' pen set containing:
- Chocolate body pen, 40g
- Best before: May 2010
- Strawberry body pen, 40g
- Best before: May 2010
- Chocolate flavoured willy spread, 40g
- Best before: 2010
- Chocolate flavoured nipple spread, 40g
- Best before: 2010
Food Alerts
If there is a problem with a food product that means it should not be sold, then it might be 'withdrawn' (taken off the shelves) or 'recalled' (when customers are asked to return the product). Food alerts are the FSA's way of letting local authorities and consumers know about problems associated with food and, in some cases, providing details of specific action to be taken. They are issued under two categories:
- Food Alerts: for Action
- Food Alerts: for Information
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The science behind the story
Check out Chief Scientist Andrew Wadge's blog at food.gov.uk/scienceblog.
Related links
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