Adulteración de leches infantiles con melamina en China

In 2008, one of the most serious cases of deliberate food contamination of recent times was unleashed in China. Several manufacturers of infant milk powders adulterated milk formulas with melamine with the aim of modifying the amount of milk proteins so that they would appear more nutritious for their analytical results. The ingestion of milk contaminated with melamine caused the death of at least four babies in China, some authors even refer to the existence of six deaths and the hospitalization of thousands of babies and children with kidney diseases. The analyzes carried out showed that the milk powder consumed contained 500 times the maximum permitted level of melamine. The mixture of melamine with milk, makes the value of the protein seem higher than it really is. Most likely, melamine was added to infant formulas in order to give them more consistency. Here, and in this case, it would have been added so that the protein content of the milk seemed larger than it really was. In small doses the melamine intake is not considered very toxic in adults, since it is estimated that a person should consume at least two liters of contaminated milk per day to suffer harmful effects. However, in babies, a much lower concentration would be sufficient. The formation of kidney stones or the blockage of some functions of the kidney are its most severe consequences.