PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA - Munchy Food Industries has reiterated that none of its products contain any dairy-based ingredients from China as it only uses those from Australia and France, its chief executive officer C.K. Tan said yesterday.

The biscuit maker was responding to an announcement by the Hong Kong Centre for Food Safety that excessive levels of melamine were found in its products.

Among the said products included Munchy's Mini Crackers with Peanut Butter and Munchy's Mini Crackers with Cheese Cream, which were found to contain 5.4 parts per million (ppm) and 3.8ppm of melamine respectively. The permitted level of melamine in such products is currently 2.5ppm.

'We are co-operating with the Health Ministry in Malaysia, which is conducting tests on our product range,' said Tan, adding that the company's products were previously tested and cleared by independent certification agencies.

Meanwhile, Bernama reports that the Health Ministry has sealed a factory producing two local biscuits which are said to contain excessive melamine by the Hong Kong government's laboratory.

Its Food Safety and Quality Division director, Noraini Mohd Othman, said last night the products would be tested for melamine.

She also said the ministry has cleared 11 more products of melamine.

They are Amoy Flour Vermicilli (Sau Tao), Chocolate cookies (Golden Fuji), Chocolate Drink (Garden Stone), Cream Flavour Biscuits (Hong Da Food), Creamy Peanut Butter (Kinus), Crips Chocolate Flavour Cracker (Golden Fuji), Fiber Cracker (Aji), Gula Udang Merah (Sanwa), House of Steamed Potato (Silang), Saltine Crackers (Four Seas) and The Original Danish Butter Cookies (Silang).