Anlmal,Plant and Flsherles Quarantine and Inspection Agency

Health officials derided for melamine inaction Political parties yesterday blasted the government for failing to cope with the melamine-tainted food scandal. Top officials of the ruling Grand National Party pounded the government for its failure to forecast the problems involving melamine-tainted food products and draw out an appropriate plan. "The government should take some time to reflect back on the fact that they didn't take the issue seriously," GNP Chairman Park Hee-tae said during a meeting of the party's decision-making Supreme Council. "It's a shame." Vice Health and Welfare Minister Lee Bong-hwa and Yun Yeu-pyo, head of the Korea Food and Drug Administration, were present at the meeting. GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo also lashed out against the food safety authorities for their attitude in dealing with the international crisis. "Melamine is explained as if it is no big deal in this report. However, it could cause kidney failure and bladder stones, and infants have died in China due to this," he said. "We urge you to run the agency for 24 hours a day, if you have to, to free citizens from the melamine scare." Opposition parties also denounced the government and the ruling party for their late move to devise food safety measures. "The melamine scare comes only 10 days after Cheong Wa Dae said their set of food safety plans was one of the biggest achievements since President Lee Myung-bak took office," said Rep. Song Young-gil of the main opposition Democratic Party. "They said no problems existed at first, but then their actions against (the problem) came late." Melamine is added to milk formula by suppliers or manufacturers to artificially inflate protein-level readings. Health authorities have stressed a small intake of the chemical poses no danger, but it is known to cause kidney failure and even death when consumed in large doses. The government and the ruling party agreed to look into merging the food safety inspection system, which is run by two different government branches, at a meeting attended by Health Minister Jeon Jae-hee. "The two parties reached a compromise that it will be more effective if we unify the food inspection network in the long run," a GNP official said. Yesterday, the nation's food watchdog released a sales-ban list covering a total of 385 products produced with dairy products from China, as of yesterday. The list, however, included names of products that were deemed to be safe earlier. "We request the related companies to control manufacturing and selling of 123 products -- excluding 43 of them that are confirmed to be completely free from melamine -- which were labeled to be safe earlier," a KFDA official said. "This is because melamine could be extracted from the same product, depending on its manufactured date." The agency, affiliated with the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, is currently examining 428 local products that are made with milk and dairy products from China and it has completed 40 percent of its inspection so far, its officials said. On another front, a total of 3,500 employees of the Haitai Confectionary and Foods Co., a leading local manufacturer that was found to have imported two Chinese-made products tainted with melamine, joined in the government's effort to collect those products nationwide. So far, about 98 percent of the distributed products have been collected since the discovery of melamine on Sept. 24, according to Haitai officials. Regional government branches also beefed up their measures against the chemical, forming supervisory group to take away food products that contain melamine in their areas. Seoul City officials yesterday said they seized 34 kilograms worth of seven Chinese-made snack products, including Haitai's Misarang Custard, and sealed about 3,200 kilograms of products that are currently being examined by state food authorities. A total of 285 teams visited department stores, large-scale grocery chains and stores around the school zones during this process. North Chungcheong Province also announced they had taken control of 6.6 kilograms of melamine-tainted products and sealed 2,667 kilograms of food that could contain the toxin. By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldm.com) 2008.09.30 http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/