City begins melamine tests on eggs

By Yang Lifei  |   2008-10-29  |     ONLINE EDITION

SHANGHAI is planning to include a routine melamine test during its monthly checks, the Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said as eggs from Shanxi Province have been found to contain excessive amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in neighboring Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

The spot check on eggs in Shanghai started yesterday morning and city supermarkets have stopped selling eggs by Hanwei, a Dalian City-based company in Liaoning Province, a Shanghai newspaper said today.

In Hangzhou, eggs by Shanxi Changzhi Green Biology Development Co were tested to have melamine of 3.5 parts per million. The legal limit is 2.5ppm, according to Xinhua news agency.

Hangzhou health watchdogs checked 27 batches of eggs. Only Shanxi eggs were found with melamine. The tainted eggs were ordered to be removed from shelves, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the Center for Food Safety in Hong Kong has found an egg containing melamine from Hubei Province, Xinhua said.

The medium-sized egg from Hubei Jingshan Pengchang Agricultural Product Co was taken from a restaurant. The level of melamine detected was 2.9ppm. It had a production date of October 10 and production batch number 4200/D0701808223. The center has asked the restaurant to stop using the eggs and local people to stop eating the eggs.

Hong Kong has discovered melamine in eggs from China's biggest producer, Hanwei. The melamine was reportedly found at concentrations of 4.7ppm, nearly twice the legal limit. Hanwei said it is investigating.

Hong Kong consumes about 1.6 billion eggs every year and about 60 percent of these eggs were imported from the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong has decided to test all eggs from the mainland in the next week and further extend the test range to meat and animal offal products from the mainland, according to Hong Kong media reports.