Cadbury recalls chocolates made in China

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The Asia-Pacific regional management of the British-based Cadbury’s distributes its chocolate products in Australia, New Zealand, India, Japan, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and South Korea. But Cadbury’s has issued a recall only in the Hong Kong area, as the chocolate products are made in Beijing.

The management announced it's recalling only as a precautionary measure, and the company didn’t say whether it found melamine in its products. The products include Cadbury Eclairs, dark and milk chocolate, hazelnut and praline chocolate, dark Chocettes, and products made specially for the Chinese New Year (in February).

The spokesman for the government's Centre for Food Safety said in a written statement:

"We appeal to the public to stop consuming the chocolate products concerned...We would alert the trade to stop selling the affected products".

The center will do further testing to ensure products are melamine-free.

Recently, many Chinese babies were sickened after they drank Chinese milk formula that contained melamine. Four were killed and more than 53,000 babies were diagnosed with kidney stones and renal problems.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has meanwhile urged five countries to immediately recall all milk powder imported from China.

Melamine is used in making plastics and is high in nitrogen, which makes products appear to have higher protein content. Ingesting small amounts of melamine does not pose harm, but repeated use will lead to kidney problems especially among children, according to health experts.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) recently warned the public not to consume or sell White Rabbit brand candy because of concerns that it may have been contaminated with melamine.