State food safety authorities announced yesterday that 10 food products were tainted with the industrial chemical melamine and 148 Chinese-made dairy products were banned from sale.
After examining a total of 495 products, including baby food, health functional food lactoferrin imported from New Zealand and China-imported vegetables and mushrooms, the Korea Food and Drug Administration gave a final briefing involving the melamine scandal at its headquarters.

"We have now finished the investigation process of 402 products, or 94 percent, of the 428 Chinese-made dairy products, with 26 items left uncollected," said Choi Sung-rack, director general of the food safety division at the KFDA. "We have also cleared sales for 212 food products that found no traces of melamine."

Of the 26 uncollected items, 14 of them were either difficult or impossible to trace because they were either all used or delivered to small-scale stores, according to KFDA officials.

"We will make further efforts to follow-up on the status of uncollected items and make sure they are not manufactured or purchased by companies and consumers," Choi said.

Following reports in China that melamine was discovered in its vegetables, the nation's food watchdog looked into 13 different types of vegetables, as well as mushrooms, imported from China, but did not find any melamine in them, its officials said.

The KFDA also failed to find melamine in 53 different kinds of baby food, powered milk and health functional food, they added.

The food agency, however, will draft a food safety manual on how to deal with food safety incidents and review how other advanced countries deal with the industrial chemical findings to develop future countermeasures.

It will also revise the food sanitation law to toughen the punishment level for those who violate state food safety and management standards, according to Choi.

A maximum of 300,000 won ($237) will be awarded to those who report to the agency illegal selling practices melamine-tainted products.

The public was outraged by the melamine scare that continued to make its way through the weekend when the industrial chemical was found in Mars' Snickers Peanut funsize and M&M milk chocolate, as well as Kit Kat wafers made by Nestle and a biscuit produced by Lotte Confectionary Co. on Saturday.

Melamine could pose a health risk if consumed in large doses. It has been added to milk formula by suppliers or manufacturers to artificially inflate protein-level readings.

In the meantime, lawmakers again pounded the government for its late action on the melamine scandal during a parliamentary audit of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.

"The Korean embassy in China reported to the government about the incident seven times since last May, including four times this year, but the state food watch did not take quick action," said Rep. Song Young-gil of the main opposition Democratic Party.

Rep Park Geun-hye of the Grand National Party said a contact list of small-scale businesses must be in place, since it has been proven that the contaminated food products are difficult to collect at small-scale businesses.

The lawmakers also ordered the ministry to strengthen the food safety management regulations on imported food products.

"Currently, there is no way for the government to spot such extractions of health-risky substances, such as melamine, ahead of time. We must immediately launch the product tracing and management system to secure and improve national food safety," said Yoo Il-ho of the ruling Grand National Party.

The KFDA initially planned to officially go ahead with the system, which provides information on the stages of processing, circulating and selling of the listed products, mandating businesses to register starting 2013. The agency is currently testing the system on 24 baby food items through December.