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Melamine in Food Ingredients

In October 2008, the FDA proposed a list of several foods to recall because they were contaminated with a relatively unknown substance known as melamine. This recall came in the wake of a previous set of recalls that started with pet food and included products ranging from baby formula to meat and eggs. Melamine contamination revealed much about the complexity and vulnerability of world food supplies, and still lingers as a silent threat.

  1. What is Melamine?

    • Melamine is a chemical that various manufacturers have used since the 1930s to make dishes and other cooking products. Under normal circumstances, the plastic is inert and poses little threat to humanity. However, several unscrupulous companies added the powder to food products to boost the apparent protein content. The food industry determines protein levels in food by testing for nitrogen, which melamine contains in abundance. By adding melamine to various foodstuffs, companies fetched a higher price for their products because they appeared of higher quality.

    Melamine Danger

    • Experts considered melamine safe until the mid-2000s when thousands of pets across the globe started dying mysteriously from kidney diseases. Not long after, thousands of infants in China became ill with kidney stones and other similar disorders. A few even died. Medical experts traced the cause of these mysterious maladies to melamine that food producers had added directly to pet food and baby formula. But food producers did not limit their use to just adding the chemical directly to food. They also added it to fertilizer and animal feed, contaminating both produce and livestock.

    Melamine as a Direct Ingredient

    • Manufacturers originally added melamine to milk products so they could sell an inexpensive mixture as if it were high quality. Industries added the tainted milk powder to products varying from baby formula to milk chocolate. Many of the manufacturers of these products are household names in America. Melamine-contaminated products included Dove chocolates, M&M Mars candies, Dreyer's cake mixes, Kraft snacks and Cadbury candies, just to name a few. While Chinese recalls removed the products from production, some bloggers reported finding these products on the shelves of American groceries.

    Melamine as an Indirect Ingredient

    • A few manufacturers chose an indirect route to cheat the system and augment the amount of protein measured in their products. Some added melamine to fertilizer, which concentrated the chemical in produce grown in the soil. The contamination was heaviest in carrots, turnips, potatoes and other root vegetables. Some farms added melamine to animal feed. The toxic chemical became concentrated in eggs, dairy products, chicken and beef as a consequence of this practice. This practice also put melamine into products such as instant soups (which contain a mixture of contaminated vegetables and animal products).

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