Recent Market Scare: Melamine in Dairy Products
October 5, 2008
Melamine is an organic base and a trimer of cyanamide, with a 1,3,5-triazine skeleton. Like cyanamide, it contains 66% nitrogen by mass and, if mixed with resins, has fire retardant properties due to its release of nitrogen gas when burned or charred, and has several other industrial uses. Melamine combines with cyanuric acid to form melamine cyanurate, which has been implicated in the Chinese protein export contaminations.
Melamine is also a metabolite of cyromazine, a pesticide. It is formed in the body of mammals who have ingested cyromazine. It has been reported that cyromazine can also be converted to melamine in plants.
Why Put MELAMINE in MILK then?
The person who added melamine to the milk supply in China was perpetrating a fraud. First, they added water to the milk so they’d have a larger volume to sell. But by adding the water, they lowered the protein concentration of the milk. Most tests for protein concentration measure the total level of nitrogen in the milk (because protein contains a lot of nitrogen). In order to compensate for the lost protein concentration, the perp added melamine, which is very rich in nitrogen. This way, the test for protein was artificially raised to make it look like the milk had never been watered down.
My Comment: China is getting famous because of the dangerous food products being exported in different countries, and it all started from the Formaline scare in white rabbit products.
