The Food and Drug Administration has recently released a report which states that the industrial chemical melamine is safe in baby formula in small amounts. The FDA had said before finding the contamination that melamine might be harmful in infant formula in any amount. Furthermore, the agency barred Chinese milk products from entering the country this month after melamine-tainted milk sickened more than 50,000 children in China since September. However, Congress members and consumer groups criticized the FDA this week for not publicly disclosing that a formula made in the United States had also tested positive for “trace” amounts of melamine, a chemical that is used in fertilizer and plastics. For example, the liquid form of Good Start Supreme infant formula with iron, by Nestlé, tested positive for melamine in as much as 0.14 parts per million, said the director of the agency's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Stephen Sundlof.

The FDA left the impression of a zero tolerance on October the 3rd, when its spokesman told the media: “FDA is currently unable to establish any level of melamine and melamine-related compounds in infant formula that does not raise public health concerns." Anyway, the agency wanted to deny rumors that the melamine contamination was intentional, offering the explanation of a mistake occurred during the manufacturing process. The U.S. Government quietly began testing domestically produced infant formula in September, after the problems with melamine-spiked formula surfaced in China. Melamine can legally be used in some food packaging, and it's also a part of a cleaning solution used on some food processing equipment.

However, the FDA does not want parents to stop feeding infant formula to babies who depend on it. Sundlof also advised parents to keep their babies' diet. If they have been feeding him with a particular product, they should continue to feed that product: “That's in the best interest of the baby.”