A consignment of milk powder from China has been seized at Bahrain's Mina Salman, amidst an international alert over deadly contamination.

The 997 bags, of 25kg each, were destined for a company making milk and ice-cream, said a Health Ministry official.

'We have now told the importer to certify that this product is free from melamine, contamination from which has resulted in thousands of children falling ill in China,' nutrition section head Dr Khairya Moosa told our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

'The product is not meant for use in infant formula or baby milk and we are reasonably sure it does not contain melamine, but we have to be very sure.'

She said the consignment would not be allowed in until the certification is received.

'There have been massive problems in China and we have to be very careful,' said Dr Moosa.

Tainted milk powder has already killed four babies in China and made thousands more ill, many with kidney stones or kidney failure.

There were also reports last Sunday that the tainted products were found in the UK and recalled.

Health Ministry head of domestic food supply and licensing Ibrahim Hamad said his section had been co-ordinating with the food control section and other authorities, to check every single consignment of infant formula or power milk arriving into Bahrain.

'All our imports from the UK and other parts of Europe are also being screened,' he said.

'We have not found anything originating in China but when we do, we will stop it from being sold. All the importers have also been given appropriate directions.'

Hamad said the seizure at Mina Salman was also part of that exercise. - TradeArabia News Service