Sale of Chinese chocolates, biscuits banned in Nepal

The government of Nepal banned the sale and import of Chinese chocolates, infant milk powder, biscuits, condensed milk and skimmed milk by September 25.
Uttam Kumar Bhattarai, director general of Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DoFTQC) said Birgunj customs office today confiscated 10,000 kg of biscuits made in China following the government’s notice. Bhattarai added that the shop owners will be held responsible if the consumers complain of health problems after consuming the banned products. “We are yet to ascertain whether the imported Chinese products contain a toxic industrial chemical, melamine,” he said, adding that the department has initiated an investigation into the matter, which might take more than two months. “We’ll also investigate whether more than 40 dairy factories licensed by DoFTQC use milk powder imported from China. Dairy Development Corporation has confirmed that it does not use milk products made in China,” he added.
Blue Bird Departmental Store at Tripureshwore will remove the Chinese food products, especially the milk-based products, from its shelves. “We’ll return them to suppliers. However, no complaints have been received so far,” said Naresh Shakya, sales officer at the store.

The European Commission is also likely to adopt tough measures tomorrow, including “a ban on all products originating from China for infants and kids containing any percentage of milk.”
Powdered milk in China laced with melamine, a chemical compound, has sickened more than 53,000 infants in China and has claimed the lives of four of them.According to New York Times, the Chinese government’s testing turned up tainted samples of milk at Sanlu Group, based in northern China’s Hebei Province, and 21 other companies.