Melamine on Formula Milk and Food Products

On these days we’re all here shocked by the news from BPOM (Indonesian Food & Drugs Administration) about possibility of melamine in some baby’s formula milk and food products from China. Yesterday they announced many brands of milk and food products that were contaminated by melamine. You know, some of them are famous brands and kids’ favorite foods.
Maybe some of you had already known by the news that last week 13.000 babies in China were seriously ill, having suffered acute kidney failure, with several fatalities, among those given formula milk contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine.

What’s melamine then? Is it the same with the plastic equipments we had at our kitchen? After reading at papers and browsing at the internet, I’ll try to inform you about it.

Melamine I meant here is an organic compound (C3H6N6) which contained 60% nitrogen and usually used for making plastic, glue and fertilizer. The plastic from melamine –because of its heating persistence- used widely in many kitchen equipments. So… melamine we complained here is different from melamine plastic equipments we had at our kitchen.

Based on the WHO’s site, the mixing of melamine in milk started from shuffle pure milk with water at the milk supplier place to get more and more milk. The effect of this dilution would lower the protein content in milk. Because of the milk based factory usually check the protein levels by determining its nitrogen content, so before the supplier send the ‘dilution milk’ to those factories, they add melamine to make its nitrogen content get higher, artificially inflate the reading of protein levels.

The very dangerous thing here is… since melamine is not an element that needs to add on food and drug then the BPOM or FDA never has a standard for checking melamine content on foods/drugs. Isn’t that scary ?? On animals melamine has a carcinogen characteristic then can you imagine what the effect with babies and kids?

So, be careful when you buy snacks or formula milks for your kids, especially those brands from China.. I think now it’s better and healthier to make homemade snack or food for our kids. It’s time to back to basic, back to our traditional homemade recipes....

"S.O.S Delivery Order"

If you have teens at homes then maybe you ever had this experience: run out of foods.
Yes, I really mean that. I often ‘run out of’ foods (mostly side dishes) at their early years of teens. They turned to have so much appetite for eating. It seemed any kinds of foods smell appetizing 
I forgot they’re not little kids anymore. They need more calories and energies for their fast growth. I was just not used in this new habit at that time. I used to cook just enough for 2 adults and 3 kids portions *I don’t like leftover foods* so when my 2 kids asked for more side dish, I was surprised and felt guilty. Oh oh, mommy forgot again! Need more foods…Then usually *think fast* I called the nearest Chinese restaurant for a “S.O.S” delivery order 
Nowadays I seldom run out of side dishes. I have used to cook for 5 adults (1 portion adding in case they need more :-b) and 1 kid portions. Every time I shop for the groceries I always put couple of frozen foods that could ready served in minutes in my list for example: sausages, croquettes, chicken spring rolls, bakpao (steamed bun stuffed with meat) just in case when they need to EAT while I’m busy *blink blink* Hehe..
But still the copy paper of menu from the Chinese restaurant stays in the fridge’s door. When ever I need the S.O.S delivery order, I just call…
What about your teens?