Just as i was read Online TODAY Newspaper, we have the latest update for Milk related scandal. Taiwan became the latest to find melamine in imported products, detecting the chemical in six milk products made by Nestle, the Swiss food giant, and banning these from sale on Thursday.

South Korea had also banned the import of milk products from New Zealand which were used in baby formula after discovering traces of melamine.

New Zealand's Tatua Cooperative Dairy Co. on Monday stopped exports of the dairy protein lactoferrin, used mainly in baby formula, after tests showed it contained four parts per million of melamine.

Food safety officials are now investigating whether lactoferrin manufactured by Westland Milk products on South Island and Australia's Victoria state dairy company, Tatura, which uses the same process, are being contaminated with melamine by the manufacturing process it uses.

New Zealand Food Safety Authority tests have shown melamine contamination of about 1 part per million in Westland's lactoferrin.

"This trace level may have arisen out of this (company's) specific, unique (manufacturing) process," said NZFSA director of compliance and investigation, Dr. Geoff Allen.

Investigators are waiting for test results on samples sent to New Zealand a week ago, which also may have implications for Victoria's Tatura plant.

Apart from four tests on lactoferrin manufactured by Fonterra, Tatua and Westland, another 112 tests had been conducted on other New Zealand dairy products, Allen said.

Fonterra is a partial owner of China's Sanlu Group, the first of 22 Chinese dairy companies whose products were found to contain high levels of melamine


Lactoferrin is widely use in baby milk powder as it has plays several important roles in human biology.

1) First, lactoferrin is believed to play a role in the uptake and absorption of iron through the intestinal mucosa. It may be the primary or sole source of iron for breast fed infants.

2) Secondly, lactoferrin appears to have antibacterial, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory activities.

Lactoferrin is a minor glycoprotein component of whey. It belongs to the iron transporter or transferrin family of glycoproteins. Lactoferrin is also found in exocrime secretions from mammals and is released from neutrophil granules during inflammation. The lactoferrin concentration in bovine (cows) milk is only 0.5% to 1.0% while human breast milk can contain as much as 15% lactoferrin.

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