Six brands of Nestle baby milk formula have been pulled from the shelves in Hong Kong by Mannings, Wellcome and ParknShop.The products were made in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China.
"The products were recalled because one of the brands, Neslac 1+ , was found to contain melamine," a spokeswoman for one of the chains said.
But other mainland-made Nestle products remain on the shelves, she added.
The news comes as Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to head off further food safety incidents.
"What we want to do now is prevent this happening again, not just with milk products, but with all foods," Wen said in a broadcast on state television.
More than 12,800 infants have become sick and four babies have died in the mainland after being fed baby formula laced with the banned industrial chemical melamine.
The removal of Nestle products added to a growing list of recalled mainland-made milk products, which so far include all Yili brand milk products, plastic-bottled Dutch Lady Milk, all Mengniu milk and a Nissin Foods boxed dessert.
The Centre for Food Safety last night said it will test samples of Mr Brown coffee for melamine, as eight products using coffee creamer from Shandong province were found to be tainted.
This came after Taiwanese company King Car announced it has recalled packs of its Mr Brown instant coffee and milk tea containing contaminated milk powder imported from the mainland.
The center also released the latest test results of dairy produ
cts, which showed that of 65 samples, including milk, milk beverage, frozen confections, infant formula, milk powder and raw milk, 64 were free of melamine.A sample of pure milk was found to contain melamine. The product was Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk (a one- liter product for catering use only).
"Based on the low level detected [in the product], normal consumption will not pose major health effects. But it is not advisable for small children to consume the milk product," a center spokesman said. "We have informed the trade of the test results and asked them to stop selling and to recall the product."
Kidney specialist Gabriel Choi Kin urged the government to give free kidney checks to all children in Hong Kong, similar to those for more than 7,000 schoolchildren in Macau who participated in a Yili milk scheme.
"Family doctors cannot refer children with no symptoms to public hospitals. These children can only get checks in the private sector," he said, adding such checks can cost up to HK$2,000.
Choi, a former Hong Kong Medical Association president, said kidney stones can be fatal if the stones are big enough.
Medical sector lawmaker-elect Leung Ka-lau said kidney checks should be extended to all public clinics with daily services and longer service hours. But the Department of Health said it has no plan to offer city-wide checks.
The Legislative Council's food and environmental hygiene deputy chairman, Fred Li Wah-ming, said the government should immediately ban the import of all mainland milk products.
More than 10 anxious parents yesterday went to the nephrology and urology department of Princess Margaret Hospital seeking kidney scans for their children but were turned away as the clinic was closed.
"It's worrying that children without symptoms may be suffering from kidney stones," said a man surnamed Choi, whose five-year-old son drank Yili milk regularly over the past three years.
The Lai Chi Kok hospital was designated to handle all kidney checks for children suspected to have consumed tainted milk or have symptoms.
The arrangement came after a three- year-old girl, who had been taking two to three cups of Yili brand milk every day over the past 15 months, was diagnosed on Saturday with a stone in her left kidney despite showing no previous symptoms. She was later discharged in good condition.
