Hong Kong says Cadbury melamine levels acceptable

Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety said it tested six Cadbury chocolate samples, including two made at Cadbury's Beijing plant, and found them to contain less than 2.5 parts per million legally considered acceptable here. It did not say whether it was testing the other nine products being recalled.

The Food and Drug Administration has said that no level of melamine deliberately added to a food product is legal in the United States.

Cadbury said the Hong Kong test results did not change their decision to recall the products from the Beijing plant.

"It was tested as satisfactory but we are still withdrawing it," said Simon Taylor, head of corporate relations and communications at Cadbury. "That makes no change from what Cadbury announced on Monday."

Baby formula containing melamine has been blamed for killing four babies and sickening over 50,000 in mainland China. The state-run China News Service says 27 people have been arrested so far in connection with the scandal.

Since melamine-tainted infant formula was uncovered in China, the banned chemical as been found in an array of food products forcing a wave of recalls, mostly in Asia.

Hong Kong authorities said it had found four other Cadbury products produced at plants outside of China also contained "satisfactory levels" of melamine.

Experts say some amount of melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizers, may be transferred from the environment during food processing.

But in China's case, suppliers trying to boost output are believed to have diluted their milk, adding melamine because its nitrogen content can fool tests aimed at verifying protein content.