Fears over Chinese eggs

Beijing - A brand of eggs is being pulled off some shelves in China because of fears they are tainted with the same industrial chemical found in milk that sickened tens of thousands of babies.

Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, said Tuesday it has removed the "Select" brand of eggs made by China's Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group from all of its stores in China, after Hong Kong food safety regulators found excessive levels of melamine in imported eggs of the same brand.

Wal-Mart and Chinese officials said they did not have a figure for how many eggs have been recalled. So far, no illnesses have been reported.

Hanwei, the manufacturer, apologised to consumers in Hong Kong while a mainland official said the company has started a nationwide recall of eggs suspected to be contaminated with the chemical, which is used in plastics and fertilizers.

The problems expose the inability of Chinese authorities to keep the food production process clean of the chemical at the center of a milk scandal that has prompted official vows to raise food safety standards. The recalls also underscore fears that melamine contamination of the country's food chain may be more widespread than earlier thought.

Hong Kong testers found melamine in the eggs at nearly two times the territory's legal limit for the chemical in foodstuffs. The egg contamination has prompted Hong Kong officials to expand food testing to Chinese meat imports.

It remains unclear what eating melamine-tainted eggs will do to humans, but in the recent scandal, milk formula heavily contaminated with the chemical caused kidney stones in babies. It was blamed for sickening 54 000 children and linked to the deaths of four infants. More than 3 600 children remain sick, health officials say.

- AP