The melamine adulteration scandal

Abstract

Melamine, a nitrogen-rich chemical, has received much attention in recent years owing to a series of highly publicized food safety incidents. These include pet food recalls in North America in 2007 and the deaths of six infants and the illness of some 300,000 more in China in 2008 owing to the adulteration of milk, infant formula, and other milk-derived products. With contamination of human food and animal feed by melamine becoming a serious public health concern owing to its wide dissemination, there is an urgent need to understand why this scandal occurred and its consequences in depth. This review summarizes information relating to the manufacture, uses, occurrence and quantitative analysis of melamine and melamine analogues. Other sections deal with the unfolding of the melamine scandal and its aftermath, the toxicity and carcinogenicity of the compound and its analogues, interim safety measures and risk assessment.