BEIJING, Oct 4: As tainted milk scandal deepens, many countries have decided to suspend import of Chinese milk products or to withdraw them from their market.

In the Philippines, two products brought into the country illegally have been taken off shop shelves after the discovery of traces of melamine in Chinese milk.

Other Asian countries — among them Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Taiwan — have banned imports of Chinese milk products, some of them extending the ban to all products containing milk, including chocolate.

In Japan, the food processing company Marudai Food has withdrawn from the market thousands of bread rolls made with milk provided by Yili.

A Japanese importer, meanwhile, has begun recalling Chinese chocolates suspected of being contaminated with melamine.

In Australia, the food watchdog has recalled White Rabbit sweets, Cadbury chocolate eclairs, and Kirin milk tea, while importers of Lotte Koala Biscuits have undertaken a precautionary withdrawal of the product.

New Zealand has withdrawn White Rabbit sweets from sale.

Myanmar, a close ally of China, plans to confiscate and destroy imports of Chinese powdered milk as a precaution.

Bangladesh has banned the sale of three kinds of powdered milk from China.

The governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Ivory Coast, Burundi, Gabon and Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo have suspended the import and the sale of all dairy products from China.

The European Union has banned all imports on Chinese milk-related products for children such as biscuits and chocolate.

Russia has confiscated 1.7 tons of powdered milk made in China after imposing an import ban.

Canada has extended its surveillance of products imported from China, but so far no cases of illness due to contaminated products have been reported.

Costa Rica’s health authorities have advised people not to eat food made with Chinese dairy products, including biscuits, chocolates and White Rabbit sweets.—AFP