U.S. company recalls cookies over melamine concerns

[Robbien]

Source: CBC

Lotte USA Inc. is recalling China-made cookies sold both in Canada and the United States because they may be contaminated with melamine.

The recall covers several flavours of Koala's March creme-filled cookies sold in both king-size and family-size packages.

Melamine is the industrial chemical blamed for killing four infants and sickening 54,000 children in China. It's used to make plastics and fertilizers.

Michigan-based Lotte said on Friday that it initiated the recall on Sept. 29.

The company said it's not aware of any illnesses associated with the products.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/10/18/lotte-melamine.html

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The first notice of melamine in the US. Cadbury chocolate here in the US was recalled, but that was due to labs in Australia finding the melamine. The EPA is silent on the issue.

This week, Japan finds Chinese melamine in its egg products; Sweden find melamine in cookies imported from China and Italy finds melamine tainted Chinese dairy products.

[bkkyosemite]

1. We need to start demanding our food be made here in the USA again, now.

These companies have gone to third world countries to make our food. Where conditions are horrible, contamination of the ground, water and facilities are not up to standards as would be in the U.S. In the U.S. we could have say over our quality of food. They have taken away our food supply and our jobs to foreign countries. Many of us do not know where are food is coming from. These countries do not have our best interest at heart. Many of our name brand frozen vegetables and fruits are from China and other countries. Most apple juice concentrate is from China as is many things we are eating. Does it not dawn on people that China does not like us so how easy would it be to poison our food supply. The country is so polluted and our food is coming from there, we need to stand up to this and say something. I have called many companies to try to get them to tell me where their food is grown and processed. Many do not want to tell.

[kestrel91316]

2. All we need to demand is country of origin labeling for not only the

end product, but the ingredients, too.

I don't buy store-bought cookies. I bake my own. The time and trouble serve as portion controls.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Organized boycotts work.

Seems time to do it again.

[True_Blue]

12. and toys and cough syrup

Did you ever hear about the poisonous cough syrup in Panama? 365 people died from the poisoned cough syrup.
'From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine'
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/world/americas/06poison.html

[OhioChick]

4. This shit has to stop. n/t

[southerncrone]

5. It's becoming more & more evident that we will be forced to

grow our own food if we want to stay healthy. Trouble is, this is very time consuming & requires land, planning & storage, not to mention devices to process it properly.

But since all our jobs are gone, guess we'll have plenty of TIME.

Welcome to the 1800's.

Those of you living in Northern cities are pretty well stuck. I feel for you, however I know there are some neighborhoods growing community gardens.

[Kalifornia.Kid]

6. Now back to the MAD COW burgers on the barbee ...

[1776Forever]

7. Dollar Tree & other lower cost stores sell a lot of Chinese made items - Also Canada uses a lot

of Chinese ingredients - here is a link:

http://www.nowpublic.com/health/update-canada-food-imports-china-safe-eat

Update CANADA: Food Imports from China, "Safe to Eat?"
by Barry Artiste | October 28, 2007

Updated:

Barry Artiste, Now Public Contributor June 15, 2008

Apparently W-5 reported last night that the Canada Food Inspection Agency,who previously stated in last years scandal that they are going to get n tougher with cancer causing chemicals used in China for our food production, that today June 2008, that little has changed after they once again ran laboratory tests on food from China from our supermarkets here in Vancouver, Canada.

Last year Vancouver received over 800 million pounds of food from China. Cheaply priced food found in British Columbia's major grocery chains and purchased by unwitting Canadians for their dinner table in the mistaken belief it is a Canadian made product may be surprised to learn that the answer for an unexplained illness may be as close as the forkful of food you're holding in front of your mouth. My story posted yesterday titled Product of Canada, Don't Bet on it ? showed Canadians they may not get what they thought they were paying for. Today W-5 has an expose' confirming out fears going one step further by showing consumers who fell ill eating foods we thought were safe. Accoding to Canadian Food Inspection Agency Inspectors, Bob Kingston, the union vice president for CFIA inspectors and former food inspector, tells W-FIVE that there are too few inspectors and the system simply can't keep up. This now leads many to believe we may be living in a false sense of security, leaving many of us to "Fend for Ourselves" in a World economy where "Cheap is King" over " Quality", regardless of the consequences of our health, sort of a "Foodie Chinese Roulette". These foods are not only found in your supermarkets, but in virtually all restaurants in most cases, even the high end restaurants.

Most at risk are Seniors and Children, with depressed or developing immune systems. Leading some to think before chowing down on what you think is Canadian Grown Seafood, the question may arise... Will this food give me Cancer?

..............

Also there has been a lot of candy companies moving to Mexico and they have a pretty bad record also on using equipment that has lead in it. Link:

http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/cndymex.pdf

.........

I hope that this is really looked at closer in an Obama Administration! I will feel much safer if and when this happens!

[Poll_Blind]

8. Most everything from Dollar Tree, IIRC, is from "Greenbriar, International"

  A friend pointed this out to me once. Many things (but not everything) are made by Greenbriar International which seems to be a front import company as opposed to an actual production company. Do you know any more?

PB

[1776Forever]

9. I do know that some of the cookies and other items are from PA makers. I just hope they don't

ship these overseas too! I especially like the Snickerdoodle cookies from Dollar Tree made in PA.

Here is a list of products I found of snacks from Dollar Tree:

http://www.taquitos.net/snacks.php?store_code=39

I shop at Dollar Tree a lot and just check out the country of origin before buying.

[quidam56]

10. The Mountains are flat...

Here in Southwest Virginia, East Kentucky and South West Virginia we are loosing our home, not to foreclosure or to a hurricane, we are loosing our home to make more hurricanes with all the MTR (Mountain Top Removal) to ship our coal to China so they can power their behemoth CO2 belching coal fired plants, to run their factories which used to be in America, so we can buy cheap toxic toys and other toxic products at Walmart. Wise County, Virginia, "THE SAFEST PLACE ON EARTH". Yet our land is being blown up in a shock and awe manner, destroying our natural buffer and protection of these 350 million year old Appalachian Mountains, the streams are destroyed and the filthy toxins in our watershed need to be addressed. Wise County can power China but here in Wise County our schools are so old and outdated they can't even handle the power needs to run the latest technology. Coal has been King in Wise County, Pound and Appalachia should look like Dubai instead of a toxic, collapsing third world dump MRSA {Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureas} infected community. I am bitter, angry, frustrated, clinging to my guns and religion citizen of the world. This is America BY GOD ! Let's start working together and get America back to what it was pre-prez W-43 ! http://www.wisecountyissues.com END MTR ! Sean Hannity shut the fuck up !

[PfcHammer]

11. Personally, my faves are the Oatmeal Melamine Chocolate Chip

hehe.groan.