WASHINGTON — Federal regulators set a safety threshold Friday for the industrial chemical melamine that is greater than the amount of contamination found so far in U.S.-made infant formula.
Food and Drug Administration officials set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in formula, provided a related chemical isn’t present. They insisted the formulas are safe.
The setting of the standard comes days after the Associated Press reported that FDA tests had found traces of melamine in the infant formula of one major U.S. manufacturer and cyanuric acid, a chemical relative, in the formula of a second major maker. The contaminated samples, which both measured at levels below the new standard, had been analyzed several weeks ago.
The FDA had stated in early October that it was unable to set a safety contamination level for melamine in infant formula.
Though Dr. Stephen Sundlof, FDA’s director of food safety, said Friday there had been no new studies since October that would give regulators more data, he said the agency was confident in setting the 1 part per million level for either of the chemicals alone. He emphasized that neither of the two tainted samples had both contaminants.
Sundlof said the lack of dual contamination was key because studies so far show dangerous health effects only when both chemicals are present.
The agency still will not set a safety level for melamine if cyanuric acid is also present, he said.
Both the new safety level and the amount of the chemical found in U.S.-made infant formula are far below the amounts of melamine found in infant formula in China that have been blamed for killing at least three babies and making thousands ill.
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