DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — Tanzania and Gabon on Saturday banned imports of Chinese milk products in the wake of the scandal in China involving milk contaminated with the toxic industrial chemical melamine.
In Tanzania, the country's food and drug authority said government officials at all border points had been ordered to be "extra vigilant with all dairy products from China including yoghurt, ice-cream powder and chocolate."
It said experts had also been sent "to check retail and wholesale outlets for any possible traces of tainted milk that had made its way" into the east African country.
Authorities in Libreveille on Saturday banned the import of all brands of Chinese milk until further notice.
The government decree also said that Chinese powdered milk already in the shops would be taken off the shelves.
China admitted this week that milk powder contaminated with melamine, which is used in plastics, had made at least 6,200 babies ill nationwide and killed four over a period of many months.
Yili, Mengniu and Guangming -- big brands consumed and trusted by hundreds of millions of Chinese -- were affected by the recall after authorities checked their products and found traces of melamine.
As well as Gabon and Tanzania, the brands incriminated in the scandal export to Bangladesh, Burundi, Myanmar and Yemen.
Melamine added to milk and other food products gives the appearance of higher protein levels.
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