By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

Two more snack items have been found to contain the harmful chemical melamine.

The Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA) said Tuesday that Ritz Bits Cracker Sandwiches Cheese, made by Navisco Food Suzhou and imported by Dongsuh Foods, and ``gosohan ssalgwaja'' (tasty rice snack), made by a Chinese company Danyang Day Bright Foods and imported by Hwatong & Babanggeu, were also found to contain melamine.

A melamine concentration of 23.3 parts-per-million (ppm) was detected in Ritz crackers, while one of 1.77 ppm was found in the rice snack.

So far six snacks have been confirmed to be tainted with the toxic chemical, including ``Misarang Coconut'' and ``Misarang Custard'' from Haitai Confectionary, ``Milk Rusk'' from J&J International, Hong Kong, and coffee creamer by Yuchang F.C.

Dongsuh and Hwatong & Babanggeu are recalling their products.

Many people are alert over the melamine-containing food items. What adds fuel to the fear includes rumors and false information about the harmful substance. Rumors are spreading fast this time again jusg as when gossip about mad cow disease was rife on the Internet in spring ahead of the nation's resumption of American beef imports.

Such rumors include: ``A person contracted kidney disease after consuming coffee creamer containing melamine,'' and ``Most animal feed imported from China contains melamine, so we should not eat chicken and pork.''

As the chemical is used to produce plastics and glues, rumors abound that when cooking with kitchenware containing melamine, the chemical melts, not only in hot water but also in cold, and thus seeps into food ― which is false information.

Many Internet users, especially mothers, ask questions such as, ``I ate the melamine-containing snack when I was five months pregnant. Is it possible that the chemical affected my baby?'' and ``Does pancake powder have melamine, too? I used to make pancakes for my boy.''

However, such questions usually meet false answers, including: ``You should not give strawberry milk to children as such milk contains powdered milk,'' and ``You need to be careful in giving children bread, chocolate, dumplings and processed dried cuttlefish as they contain lactose.''

A video clip even introduces a method which the creator claims is effective ``to check whether powdered milk contains melamine or not.'' The method, however, is groundless. ``We detect melamine with special analysis machines, so people cannot detect it at home,'' a KFDA official said.

``People are advised to be careful in selecting foods, but they don't need to be excessively afraid of the chemical,'' he said.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr