The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday ordered spot checks on baby food with meat and poultry, and such perennial kid favorites as breaded chicken nuggets, hot dogs and sausages, packaged meatballs and pizza snacks. The foods were singled out for limited, random tests because they may contain milk-based ingredients that have been linked to contamination in foods and candies manufactured with milk from China.
Processed meat and poultry products — including some of kids' favorite foods — will be pulled from grocery shelves nationwide for limited, random tests for melamine, an industrial chemical that spawned a worldwide food scandal after more than 50,000 children in China became sick from drinking tainted milk produced by China's dairy industry.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday ordered spot checks on such perennial kid favorites as breaded chicken nuggets, hot dogs, packaged meatballs, pizza snacks and other processed foods that contain milk-based ingredients.
The testing notice, which also covers baby food containing "significant" amounts of meat or poultry, does not specify a brand or make any distinction between domestic or imported products.
The USDA will randomly test 45 samples a week from retail stores throughout the country, according to a notice issued by the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service. Testing is expected to begin in about two weeks, and will last for 12 weeks.
The foods were singled out because they contain milk-based ingredients such as cheese, dried milk, casein and whey. The ingredients have been linked to contamination in foods and candies manufactured with milk from China.
USDA spokeswoman Amanda Eamich said the tests were ordered as "an abundance of caution," and were linked to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's recent decision to stop the import of products from China that contain milk-based ingredients unless the manufacturer can show they are not contaminated.
Eamich said testing will not be limited to products containing milk ingredients from China because the agency has no way of knowing the origin of the ingredients used in the manufacturing process.
Source: The Seattle Times