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Brussels: The European Commission on Thursday proposed testing and restricting imports of food products from China containing powdered milk in response to a scandal over milk products that have made children ill.
A Commission spokes-woman said European Union authorities would test 100 per cent of products from China containing more than 50 per cent milk powder, and would ban all products for children and young people containing any proportion of milk.
"As far as we know, for the moment no contaminated products are on the European market," spokes-woman Nina Papadoulaki told a news briefing.
"We had to step up our measures in order to be ... 100 per cent protected."
China's top quality regulator has resigned over the scandal, which has found milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine, used in pesticides and in making plastics.
So far, four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk powder, which causes kidney stones and agonising complications, and a string of Asian countries have banned or recalled Chinese milk products. Thousands of Chinese infants are also sick in hospital after drinking tainted milk formula.
Although the EU does not import milk or milk products from China, Commission experts fear that composite food products that do enter EU markets could contain, or be made from, such items - like biscuits and confectionery, especially chocolate.
The EU executive proposed the checks and ban to experts from EU member states on Thursday and they should come into force today, the spokes-woman said.
The Commission, which is charged with food safety and implementation of EU food standards across the bloc's 27 member states, made the proposals in response to an expert opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), based in Parma, Italy.
EFSA said separately on Thursday that children who eat large amounts of biscuits and sweets that contain Chinese milk powder contaminated with melamine could, in theory, exceed safe doses of the chemical.
The EU agency looked at worst-case scenarios - large consumption of highly contaminated products - and said there was no risk to adults, but a potential threat to children.
"In worst-case scenarios with the highest level of contamination, children with high daily consumption of milk toffee, chocolate or biscuits containing high levels of milk powder would exceed the TDI (tolerable daily intake)," EFSA said in a statement.
"It is presently unknown whether such high level exposure scenarios may occur in Europe," it said.
Extra checks
Some EU countries have already taken action unilaterally.
Italy has imposed extra checks on Chinese food imports, requiring certificates to show they are free from milk.
France has banned all food items containing Chinese milk products and has been checking whether any baby milk of Chinese origin is present on the French market, although no such products have yet been found.
This week, the World Health Organisation and Unicef called China's milk scandal "deplorable".
Rich in nitrogen, melamine is relatively cheap and can be added to substandard or watered-down milk to fool quality checks, which often use nitrogen levels to measure the amount of protein in milk.
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