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Nestle products taken off shelves
TAIPEI, Taiwan –– Nestle milk products were removed from all supermarket shelves in Taip
ei and Kaohsiung yesterday, although Department of Health tests showed melamine residue found in the Swiss manufacturer’s dairy items posed no health hazards.
In a statement, the DOH said that although there are no health concerns about the Nestle products, which were imported from China, it had to order the removal to put to rest any public suspicions.
Altogether 20 KLIM and Nespray items were taken off the shelves at once.
Liang Jia-jui, Nestle’s spokesman in Taipei, said its products, manufactured in Heilongjian Province in China, were safe to consume, but the DOH order would be obeyed.
“First of all,” Liang told a press conference, “we will take these products off the shelf... Nestle will make consumer interests its top priority,” he added as he drank from a mug of one of Nestle’s products to show there should be no health concerns.
He urged the DOH to conform to the international standard in testing all dairy products. The loss due to the removal will be around NT$1 billion, Liang said.
Just one month ago, all Nestle products, including those imported from China, were cleared of any melamine contamination, but as the food scare continued unabated, the DOH made the melamine toleration level almost 50 times as strict as the international norm.
Dr. Yeh Ching-chuan, the newly appointed DOH minister, made it a rule that any products found to have melamine traces in six types of Nestle products have to be taken off the food store shelves.
The new standard is “undetectable.” That means the product tested should show no traces of melamine by the best testing apparatuses available.
DOH laboratory workers are not certain whether melamine traces found were in the products tested or the plastic bags with which they were brought to their tests.
Either in Taipei or Kaohsiung, DOH inspectors said, consumers, not Nestle distributors, brought the dairy products to DOH laboratories.
“Some of the samples tested,” one DOH laboratory worker said, “were wrapped up in plastic bags.” The possibility of the bags being contaminated by melamine cannot be ruled out.
Nestle products tested in Taipei were found to have contained between 0.06 and 0.845 parts per million of melamine in the six types of Nestle milk powder. Melamine, a highly toxic chemical, is used in plastics, but banned as a food or feed additive.
The DOH minister told a press conference such minor doses of the chemical will not affect health, but the new standard has to be applied.
Melamine traces found in Kaohsiung were between 0.188 and 0.699 parts per million.
“Fundamentally,” Yeh said, “Nestle products from China that consumers now have are safe to consume. But if they suspect they have problem, they may bring the matter to the attention of Nestle.” He said he believes the Swiss company will take care of any such problem.
The Swiss company, Yeh said, will remove all the 20 products within 48 hours. Moreover, Yeh urged all public health agencies across Taiwan to make sure the removal is completed.
“On the other hand,” Yeh said, “all products from China have been inspected and cleared in the past if 15 percent of their ingredients are milk powder, baby formula milk powder and creamer.”
Those that fail to pass the tests will have to be taken off the shelves, Yeh said. “We may continue to find products tainted by melamine,” he added. TAIPEI, Taiwan –– Nestle milk products were removed from all supermarket shelves in Taip ... more -
Candy with chemical in Chinese milk found in Connecticut
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- An industrial chemical blamed for sickening thousands of infants in China was found in candy in four Connecticut stores this week, a state official said Wednesday.
Days after contaminated White Rabbit Creamy Candy was found in California, Connecticut Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said tests found melamine in bags of the candy sold at two New Haven stores, a West Hartford market and an East Haven store.
"We're concerned, obviously, there may have been bags sold of these before we got to them," Farrell said.
Anyone who has the candy should destroy it, Farrell said.
The contamination has been blamed for the deaths of four children and kidney ailments among 54,000 others. More than 13,000 children have been hospitalized and 27 people arrested in connection with the tainting.
Melamine, which is high in nitrogen, is used to make plastics and fertilizers and experts say some amount of the chemical may be transferred from the environment during food processing. But in China's case, suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.
Melamine can cause kidney stones, leading to kidney failure. Infants are particularly vulnerable.
Melamine has been associated with contaminated infant formula and other Chinese products containing milk protein.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government identified 15 more Chinese dairy companies as producing milk products contaminated with melamine, bringing the total to 20 companies. At least 100 batches of milk powder have been found to contain the chemical, according to data on the food safety administration's Web site.
Last week, California health officials announced it discovered traces of melamine in White Rabbit candy it tested. Queensway Foods Company Inc. of California distributed the candy and says it is recalling it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working with state and local governments to check for and test products that could possibly be contaminated with melamine. Last Friday, the FDA warned consumers not to consume White Rabbit Candy and Mr. Brown coffee products because of possible melamine contamination. HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- An industrial chemical blamed for sickening thousands of infants in China was found in candy in four Connectic... more -
NZ’s first commercial robotic dairy farm open
NZ’s first commercial robotic dairy farm open
New Zealand’s first commercial robotic dairy farm open
New Zealand’s agricultural industry has taken a fast forward with the official opening of the country’s first robotic commercial dairy farm yesterday.
On Stradbrook Farm in Mid Canterbury, the cows milk themselves any time of the day or night; the strip grazing fences use solar power instead of human power and robotic gates open and shut alone, driven by the needs of the individual cow standing before them.
Even the effluent system turns itself on and off, sorting fibre from liquid. The 5am/5pm guaranteed milking times are gone and cows are treated as individuals, no longer just a herd.
Owned and operated by the Carr Agricultural Group, Stradbrook Dairy Farm is the only one of its kind in New Zealand and the world. The 80ha dairy conversion near Mayfield not only showcases innovative dairy farming solutions but is also operating commercially as a fully-functioning dairy farm.
Carr Agricultural Group’s Winslow Ltd is the agent and New Zealand’s first Lely Dairy Centre, is using Stradbrook to showcase the cutting edge technology products. Winslow managing director Craig Carr said Stradbrook will be milking 280 cows this year and working towards developing a split calving model to maximize the use of the robots all year round.
Approximately 40 out of town guests toured the farm yesterday and another 200 attended the official opening and launch of the Lely Dairy Centre by Agricultural Minister Jim Anderton and world chief executive of Lely Holding Alexander Lely at the Ashburton Hotel.
In setting up the farm Winslow has worked closely with DairyNZ (formerly Dexcel) which has used a different brand of milking robots on its research farm in Hamilton.
DairyNZ spokesman Bruce Thorrold told the evening gathering Winslow’s investment in taking robotic milking to a commercial level was a “bold step” forward for the dairy industry in New Zealand.
“We are excited about what we are all going to learn through from this venture. At DairyNZ we see a lot of value in investing our resources in this venture. Central to our investment has been the willingness of the Carrs to share what they are learning with the agricultural industry in New Zealand.”
Innovations on the farm include:
o Adapting the robotic milking technology to a pasture-based system;
o The prototype solar powered strip grazer that frees farmers from having to continually move fences, and gives cows a more consistent feed pattern and fresh pasture;
o Grazeway gates that open and close automatically and direct the cow to different parts of the farm depending on what each cow needs and the pasture rotation.
o A computer system that can text problems to the farmer
o Collar technology that records the cow’s chewing pattern to determine its health status and whether it is getting enough feed.
o Automatic Luna cow brushes to comfort and massage the cow
o An effluent system designed by Plucks Engineering that reduces the environmental impact of dairying’s most challenging by-product. NZ’s first commercial robotic dairy farm open New Zealand’s first commercial robotic dairy farm open ... more -
Dairy Industry short animated film: The Meatrix II
Critically-acclaimed, award-winning Meatrix movie - The Meatrix II: Revolting
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Odiferous Overcrowded Dairy Farms Not Just A Problem for Cows
Vegetarians and concerned carnivores alike have long protested the way livestock is raised at many large farms. But it's taking some time for Americans to view this not only as an animal-mistreatment issue but one that directly affects human health. The Union of Concerned Scientists has taken the issue up, and is driving its point home by citing a recent event in which rural Minnesotans actually fled their homes as a result of animal crowding's side-effects.
According to reporting by Minnesota Public Radio, the fumes from a northwestern Minnesota dairy operation, Excel Dairy, recently became so noxious that the state's Health Department declared they "posed an immediate health threat." At issue is hydrogen sulfide, which causes respiratory complaints even at very low levels but has allegedly been high enough lately that residents have seen "neighbors throw up in their driveways."
The state's initial monitoring device, set up by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency after repeated citizen requests, showed no pollution - because it was placed upwind of the farm, which is licensed for about 1,500 head of cattle. Once a monitor was placed downwind, there were some days in which hydrogen-sulfide levels actually reached the maximum the device was capable of measuring, 90 parts-per-billion (or 90 ppb).
UCS points out this Occupational Health and Safety article which cites research finding that "symptoms such as headache, nausea, and eye and throat irritation were found in communities with ambient levels as low as 7 to 10 ppb."
The dangerous gas, according to UCS, is being "generated by low-oxygen conditions in manure pits" that are a distinguishing feature of confined animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. CAFOs are the focus of an in-depth report by the organization (both a summary and the full report can be downloaded here), which argues that mass confinement is not, as many would assume, the inevitable result of market forces - but is "largely the result of misguided public policy that can and should be changed." Vegetarians and concerned carnivores alike have long protested the way livestock is raised at many large farms. But it's taking s... more -
Food Riots
Food prices are going through the roof and it's the supposedly green biofuels that are to blame.
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Why you can't trust the media!
Unbelievable! People, turn off your televisions that report the "news" and turn on current!!!!!! You can't trust corporations not to lie, cheat, steal, or do anything for PROFITS!!!!!!! Investigative reporters for Fox News had the truth on Monsanto's dairy cow hormone which makes cows produce more milk and it turns out the stuff causes cancer!!!!!!!!! Unbelievable! People, turn off your televisions that report the "news" and turn on current!!!!!! You can't trust corp... more
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'Got Pus?' Campaign Gets PETA Sued
Got a problem with milk? Better not rip off the industry's well-known marketing slogan to express it. Milk processors are demanding that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals end a publicity campaign that asks "Got pus? Milk does."
I don't know. I think it's pretty clever. And I agree with PETA's lawyers in that no reasonable person will honestly confuse this message as something coming directly from the milk industry. That is udder-ly ridiculous. Got a problem with milk? Better not rip off the industry's well-known marketing slogan to express it. Milk processors are demandi... more -
Tiene Leche?
Cattle ranchers calling for an increase in milk prices, go on strike and dump some 6,000 liters of milk into the roadways of a city in northern Peru. Cattle ranchers calling for an increase in milk prices, go on strike and dump some 6,000 liters of milk into the roadways of a city in... more
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Dairy Industry
