As you've probably heard by now, China is in the midst of another food contamination crisis. This time, it's been discovered that a variety of milk products, including infant formula, were laced with melamine. Four babies have died as a result and countless others have been sickened. While no Chinese formula has been found in the US, Bay Area FDA Inspectors have found that the milk-based candy 'White Rabbit' may contain some melamine. All inventory of the candy has been pulled from the shelves and there are currently no reports that anyone in this country has become ill as a result of eating the candy. I'm quite sad to hear that 'White Rabbit' is no longer safe, as it it has always been one of my favorite treats to pick up at my local Asian foods store. For at least 15 years, it has been a staple in my Christmas stocking (my dad knows I love the stuff) but after this, I don't feel safe eating it.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-24-2008 @ 6:26PM
Yin said...
Since you like the White Rabbit candy, you could try to find Hokkaido Milk Candy. I find the two of them are comparable in taste and texture! Hokkaido Milk Candy's packaging has a big cow in front of it. (You can find a picture of it through Google Image Search.) When I was in college, the Asian grocery story by me didn't have White Rabbit, but had Hokkaido Milk Candy instead.
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9-25-2008 @ 1:32AM
JB said...
Makes me sad, we had to just throw away a bowl of it after reading the news here.
I just looked for the Hokkaido Milk Candy, but most of it appears to be flavored, not just WHITE MILK.
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9-25-2008 @ 5:15PM
bayhapa said...
I'm a fan of the White Rabbit milk candy but another comparable candy you can find at the Asian markets is "Milky" or Peko-chan Milky Candy. I've been eating that one since I was a kid and it's from Japan. It's a bit softer than the White Rabbit and richer. It tastes like it's made from sweetened condensed milk. I prefer it over White Rabbit but there are fewer places that carry it so I started buying White Rabbit. This whole can of worms is so sad to see. What will they find contaminated next?
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9-25-2008 @ 5:45PM
sanman said...
sigh...I just bought a bag of these two days ago and probably had 4-5 of them today alone...
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9-30-2008 @ 3:47AM
rvemralino said...
The Bureau of Food and Drugs of the Philippines has made this discovery about WHITE RABBIT contaning toxic ingredients unfortunately many other Countries refused to accept this findings from the Philippines. Congratulations to BFAD, better late than never.
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10-03-2008 @ 1:27AM
Rosemarie said...
I ate the candy and got extremely sick. I couldn't figure out what was making me sick and the only thing different in my diet was the White Rabbit candy. I was eating 6+ pieces a night and each day got sicker than the day before. I saved the package and a few pieces because I was going to have it analyized as I felt I was being "poisoned". I dismissed it and never got around to doing anything about it. THEN, I heard the whole melamine incident. OMG! I ate that crap!
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10-06-2008 @ 1:38PM
Rosemarie said...
The paragraph above states that there are currently no reports of anyone in this country becoming ill from the White Rabbit candy. I did become ill and just reported it to my doctor who wants to follow up with me just to make sure everything is okay. I ate a large amount of the candy as opposed to those who ate only a few pieces though. If anyone wants to know my symptoms of the poisoning they can reply to this email. I had everyone of them on the checklist that I researched.
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