YANGON (AFP) — Myanmar authorities said Tuesday they had removed seven imported dairy products from store shelves -- one of them from China -- after they were found to contain traces of melamine.
An official statement in the state press did not specify where all of the products had been made but at least one came from China, where four children have died and at least 53,000 fell ill from melamine-tainted milk products.
The announcement came just days after nine Chinese products were banned from Myanmar store shelves.
"Importation, processing, distribution and using... milk powder contaminated with melamine that is unfit for human consumption are hereby prohibited," the statement in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The health and industry ministries will continue to test all imported dairy products for traces of the industrial chemical, it said.
Myanmar's food and drug watchdog had already destroyed 16 tonnes of imported Chinese baby formula, and authorities had urged people not use Chinese milk and dairy products because of the widespread tainted milk scandal.
Vietnam has complained to Indonesia of possible melamine contamination in Indonesian-made biscuits, a report said Tuesday.
Vietnamese authorities informed Indonesia's embassy in Hanoi that Indonesian-made Khong Guan biscuits could be tainted with the chemical, Trade Ministry Director Subagyo was quoted as saying by the Antara news agency.
Indonesia's food and drug monitoring agency has been ordered to probe the issue, Subagyo said.
"Based on the results of our own tests the product is not contaminated with melamine," food and drug agency chairman Husniah Rubiana Thamrin Akib was quoted as saying.
Khong Guan biscuits had already been tested in Indonesian and Vietnamese laboratories and had come up negative for melamine, usually used in making plastics, she said.
"Our products are safe because we import milk from Europe, Australia and New Zealand," Akib said.
Indonesia ordered food producers to avoid using Chinese-made milk products in September after four Chinese children died and at least 53,000 fell ill from drinking milk or milk products laced with melamine.
Some manufacturers had been using the chemical to make watered-down milk appear to have a higher protein content.
An array of China-made foods and drinks have been removed from store shelves around the world since the contamination first came to light last month.
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