By staff reporter Chen Qian

China’s contaminated milk crisis has continued spreading with the discovery of more Chinese dairy products on overseas markets tainted by the industrial chemical melamine, including brands sold by multinationals Mars and Nestle, and the Asian foods group Oishi.

On October 4, South Korea’s food watchdog announced that it had found melamine on its market in 10 Chinese dairy products, including Snickers Peanut Fun Size and an M&M’s milk chocolate snack, both made by Mars Inc. Also tainted were Kit Kat bars produced by a Nestle plant in Tianjin, and cookies made by Lotte China.

Mars and Lotte announced recalls for all contaminated products. A Mars statement said the company is temporarily recalling related products in South Korea, but added that the melamine levels do not pose a health risk.

He Tong, a spokesperson for Nestle China, told Caijing that the batch of tainted chocolate products on South Korea’s latest list was not sold in China, and that all of the company’s products in China have proved safe.

At the same time, Japanese food importers have found chocolate candy produced by Oishi China contaminated by melamine. The Japanese government ordered these products taken off the shelves.

The Indonesian government also detected melamine in more than 10 categories of Chinese products last week, including Nabisco’s Oreo cookies and M&M’s milk chocolate snack, according to The Wall Street Journal. Levels of the chemical, which can cause kidney disease and has been blamed for the deaths of four babies in China, were found to vary from 8.5 milligrams per kilogram of product, to 945 milligrams per kilogram.

Hong Kong’s food safety regulator earlier ordered the multinational HJ Heinz Co. to recall a batch of baby food as a “precautionary measure” because the product showed trace levels of melamine.

A number of countries and regions have tested food products after China’s tainted milk scandal surfaced in early September, sparking recalls. However, standards for melamine in food products vary to a large degree from one country to the next.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires melamine levels in food to be no more than 2.5 milligrams per kilogram, except for baby milk powder. But Taiwan’s standard is 0.05 milligrams per kilogram, and Hong Kong’s limit is less than 1 milligram per kilogram.

In addition to the deaths, thousands of children in China have suffered kidney problems after drinking milk formula tainted with melamine, which was added to milk to falsify protein-quality tests.