The Melamine Mystery

November 8, 2008 | By User Image bokjae | In Useful Information

Lately there were more food products such as biscuits, chocolates sold locally, were found to contain high levels of Melamine. I actually wondered about why manufacturers add Melamine into the food process knowing the health risks involved! Have you ever wondered? Mind you it seems Melamine is not cheap so it does not make economical sense.

Well, I received a 'report' originating from China explaining the Melamine Mystery over the recent Contaminated Milk from the China fiasco. According to this report; Melamine is not added into the milk at all! What the manufacturers in China did was to add another toxic compound known as 'Urea' into the milk!!!

Why Urea? It seems that adding cheap fertilizer compound like Urea increases the Protein Content in the milk! The way to test Protein Content is to measure the Nitrogen content level which the Urea produces in sufficient quantities!

What happens is that fresh milk is kept at ultra high temperatures (UHT) and when sprayed out to produce milk powder; the urea undergoes a chemical change into Melamine! That's how the Melamine content was discovered in the milk powder!

Sounds logical to me but I guess chemistry people will understand the process better! So folks, that's what I found out from this 'China Report'! Can anyone check the truth in this story? If you do please leave a comment here for the benefit of all!

The 'report' also mentioned the following:-

Best quality milk is used to produce Yogurt, High Calcium Milk.

Low quality milk used to produce breakfast milk!

Milk that has turned bad or 'smelly' is used to make ice-cream and cheap milk powder!