Japan’s famous Saizeriya chain restaurants found small amounts of melamine in their pizzas due to powdered milk imported from China, but consumers need not be concerned.
Official figures suggest the amount of tainted milk powder used in pizzas is small, however, consumers still need to be made aware.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced October 20 that Saizeriya chain restaurants had found small amounts of melamine (about 4.3 parts per million) in their pizza ingredients, but no report of people falling sick.
According to Japanese media report, Saizeriya chain imported 5.7 tons of melamine-tainted milk powder from Guangdong Province’s Foshan Jincheng Quick-Frozen Food Company, and the pizzas containing the tainted milk powder had already been consumed by customers of October 1 and 2.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently concluded that presence of melamine in food at or below 2.5 ppm should not be a cause for public health concern. This is similar to the conclusions of the EU, New Zealand and Singapore.
However, foods with low levels of dairy-based ingredients, such as candies and biscuits, are likely to be infrequently consumed and in small amounts are not considered to be a high-risk food for potential dietary exposure to melamine even if the dairy ingredient is above that level.
Japan’s importers tested 2,540 products for melamine from September 20 to October 19, and 18 were found to have been contaminated with melamine.
