Although the FDA recently said that melamine in any amount might threaten the health of infant formula consumers, it announced on Friday that the industrial chemical was safe if used in the aforesaid products in small amounts.

Federal regulators set a threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in infant formula, given that a related chemical is not present. The agency insisted the products are safe, even though in October it couldn’t set a safety contamination level for melamine in baby formula.

In September 2008, Chinese health officials found the industrial chemical in powdered infant formula. A huge scandal emerged as almost 53,000 children became ill, over 12,800 of them were hospitalized and four died. There have been no reports of illnesses in the U.S. and the Food and Drug Administration insisted to assure parents that something similar will not happen there.

Nonetheless, traces of the chemical have been found in samples of U.S. baby formula. Despite this, the agency claims that the products don’t pose any risk, as the levels that have been detected were “extremely low," according to Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. Parents shouldn’t change their babies’ diets. It would be dangerous for them to discontinue feeding infant formula to those who depend on it. “If they've been feeding a particular product, they should continue to feed that product. That's in the best interest of the baby."