When I saw the pictures of the wax coated apples that came in my mailbox I thought this was the heights of food contamination. This was only till I came across the melamine news. The recent food news that has taken all of us by shock is the presence of the chemical melamine in milk products in China. Till now it was not thought of in the wildest of dreams that melamine could be a part of food products. This scandal has however, led to several countries waking up to the fact that melamine presence in food is a possibility that they need to consider very seriously. Countries are now coming forward and fixing the limits for melamine in food.

"To my knowledge, the EU, Hong Kong and New Zealand have only in recent weeks fixed a transitory limit of 2.5 milligrams per kilogramme for food products, with the limit lowered to 1 milligram per kg for food consumed by children," Peter Ben Embarek (WHO food safety expert) said. According to him "melamine has nothing to do with the food chain and therefore no standard had been fixed on a global level. There are billions of chemical products that normally should not be found in food -- it is therefore impossible to fix a limit for all the chemicals. That's the case of melamine.

 It is believed that melamine gains entry to food products through sources like the fertilizers used, internal contamination, packaging and manufacturing process problems.

Melamine has so far not been the cause for any deaths, however, the death of four children in China and another 53000 falling sick due to the contaminated milk products has come as a serious matter of concern that the Governments cannot put aside lightly. Products with melamine content found have been banned for now. Serious steps need to be brought in for food testing in the coming days. It is high time that we wake up and think about what we are eating and feeding our future generation.