Melamine in Lemon Puffs, Edna chocolate

[TamilNet, Friday, 17 October 2008, 11:21 GMT]
Sri Lanka's largest biscuit company, Ceylon Biscuits Limited, has ordered a recall of a popular biscuit, the Munchee Lemon Puff, after Swiss authorities found melamine traces in the product. The move comes amid an international health scare after milk tainted melamine, a poisonous substance used in the manufacture of plastic, led to the deaths of four children in China and made 53,000 thousand others sick. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has ordered a ban on the sale of Edna chocolate products, the BBC Sinhala service reported.

Ceylon Biscuits said its decision to take its Munchee LemonPuff biscuits off shelves came "in the light of certain adverse news reports coming from overseas."

Swiss authorities said Monday that they had found high concentrations of melamine in the cookies and have called on other European countries to withdraw the products from the market.

Officials in the canton (state) of Geneva said tests also showed high melamine levels in Thai biscuits Milk Cookies S&P.

Ceylon Biscuits says it does not use milk from China and its biscuits only contain milk products from Australia, Holland and Canada, the ABC radio in Australia reported Thursday.

In Sri Lanka, melamine has been found in another product: the judiciary has issued an interim order against the distribution and selling of Edna chocolate products, the BBC Sinhala service, Sandeshaya, reported this week.

The court order was issued after considering a petition by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) which said it is suspicious whether the company has used milk tainted with the toxic chemical.

Colombo Additional Magistrate ordered the CAA to produce a report on its investigations on 28 October, Sandeshaya reported.