Many parents may choose beautiful, light and unbreakable melamine tableware. However, is the melamine tableware on the market safe?

Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Supervision conducted a random inspection of the melamine tableware produced and sold in Shanghai. Among the 76 batches of products, 9 batches were unqualified, and the unqualified rate reached 11.8%. Among them, 5 batches of products were found unqualified for migration of melamine. Excessive amount of melamine may harm human health. A batch of melamine tableware sold by MINISO was on the list.

Details are as follows:

Source: Official WeChat of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Supervision.

Melamine is a type of triazine nitrogen-containing heterocyclic organic compound, and it’s the main raw material for melamine formaldehyde resin. At present, melamine resin prepared by condensation polymerization of melamine and formaldehyde is used in the plastics industry. Sampling results showed that among the 9 batches of unqualified melamine tableware, 5 batches involved unqualified migration of melamine (4% acetic acid) , among them, the detective value of the melamine migration amount of one batch even reached 5.0 mg/kg, which was twice the standard. According to the regulations of GB4806.6-2016 National Food Safety Standard Plastic Resin for Food Contact, the specific migration limit of melamine is 2.5mg/kg. However, when used in the food contact materials or products for infants and young children, the specific migration limit of melamine is 1.0 mg/kg.

These 5 batches of unqualified products included 1 batch from MINISO (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., which is "KaKao Friends" RYAN single ear apple bowl.

It is reported that melamine tableware with unqualified migration of melamine (4% acetic acid) may migrate into food during use, and there is a risk of harming human health. Although melamine is not included in the "Dangerous Chemicals Inventory", it is potentially harmful to animals, and long-term exposure or ingestion can cause disease. As early as 2017, the World Health Organization listed melamine as a category 2B carcinogen.

Unqualified consumption of potassium permanganate

Potassium permanganate consumption refers to the total amount of substances that can be oxidized by potassium permanganate when food contact materials migrate into water under certain time and temperature. It indicated the total amount of water-soluble substances that can migrate out and can be oxidized in food contact materials.

Sampling results showed that 3 batches of melamine tableware potassium permanganate consumption was unqualified, and 1 batch of melamine tableware suffered serious discoloration during the decolorization test.

It is reported that the removal of inks, pigments, plasticizers, binders and other additives in food contact materials can lead to excessive consumption of potassium permanganate. If the consumption of potassium permanganate is unqualified, these harmful substances will easily migrate out into the food, which will cause harm to human health.

The unqualified products have withdrawn from the market. Although the product is no longer available, we still hope that enterprise strictly control product quality.

Lately, General Administration of Customs, P.R.China announced the quality and safety of some imported children’s products that were unqualified by the customs from January to May 2020. 6 category of 41 batches of imported children’s products such as clothing and toys, etc. were found unqualified.

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