Health

Canada Adopts Melamine Standards Set by World Health Organization

by Terri Potratz | December 11, 2008 at 12:06 pm

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Canada has lowered their standards for what an acceptable daily melamine intake level is, matching the standards set forth by the WHO. Canada is the first country to amend health and safety regulations in order to comply with the new "safe" melamine levels set by the WHO.

Now, the maximum daily intake of melamine that a person can ingest without some health risk is 0.2 mg per 1 kg of body weight. Infant formula must contain no more than 0.5 parts per million, a lower threshold than the previous 1 ppm that was previously in place in Canada.

"As the first country to adopt the World Health Organization's recommendations, Canada is a world leader in addressing the health impacts of melamine contamination in food," she said.

She also noted that Canada will reduce the amount of melamine it allows in infant formula to 0.5 parts per million from one part per million, even though the WHO had determined that one part per million in infant formula and other foods is safe.

"The health and safety of Canadians is important for our government and we are taking very seriously the concerns being raised by parents," Aglukkaq said.

She noted that even before the new standards were adopted no infant formula product in Canada has ever tested positive for melamine levels above the new 0.5 standard.

Stringent melamine safety standards are being employed to address the tragic crisis that developed in China earlier this year, in which melamine-tainted dairy products caused the death of 6 infants and sickened hundreds of thousands more.

See more NowPublic.com Food Safety stories here.

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Uwe Paschen

at 22:45 on December 11th, 2008

To little to late. The fact that we have established those standards and limited it 0.5 ppm simply means that it is out of control and that we have no way any longer of eliminating it ever. So we gave in with minimum standards that in fact are a lot more ten just minimum...