Melamine Tableware
Dear Customers,
During the last weeks, different media reported that powdered milk had been tainted with melamine in China. This lead to severe illnesses in infants and young children. The nitrogen-containing substance melamine has obviously been added fraudulently, in order to simulate higher protein content. Now there is quite some uncertainty on the market regarding the use of melamine tableware.
Melamine is a chemical that is used together with formaldehyde for the production of the plastic melamine formaldehyde resin. This plastic is commonly called melamine. This plastic has been used for many years also for the production of unbreakable tableware and other kitchen utensils, like spatulas. It is also used as binder for particle and laminated boards (e.g. Resopal®).
During the manufacturing of plastics, so-called macromolecules are formed with the help of chemical processes. These consist of many individual molecules from the source materials and are tightly integrated in the macromolecule. The macromolecules have completely different features than the source materials; it is not possible to extract the substances from which the macromolecules have been produced.
Depending on the manufacturing process, plastics may still contain traces of uncombined source materials. The plastics, however, from which e.g. melamine tableware is made, are subject to strict food law requirements. In practice, there is no evidence that objects made of melamine formaldehyde resin usually contain and/or release residual amounts of melamine. Even if the legally permitted limit were reached, this would not pose any hazard to human health. Melamine tableware is thus safe to use.
LGA QualiTest GmbH (institute for product testing and quality control) has confirmed the innocuousness of melamine tableware for Habermaaß GmbH.
With best regards,
i. A. Matthias Löhnert
Quality Assurance
