New Zealand food safety officials are planning to set an international standard for an endurable level of melamine adulteration.

Large number of children had fallen ill in China by deliberate melamine contamination of milk from a Fonterra joint venture in 2008. The chemical was believed to increase protein levels but concealed the truth that the milk had been watered down.

At the same time in New Zealand, the Food Safety Authority (NZFSA) choose numerous thresholds, a 1 part per million (1ppm) restriction on melamine in infant formula, a 2.5ppm limit on melamine in foods on shop shelves, and a 5ppm constraint on foods that may be used as ingredients.

The authority said, "Foods containing up to 5ppm of melamine do not pose a risk to human health".

Now, NZFSA toxicologist, John Reeve is working with a team of international experts to set a globally accepted limit for melamine in foods.

Next month, he will attend a "Codex Committee" meeting in Turkey in an effort to set a contamination threshold, which will prevent low levels of melamine becoming "unnecessary barriers to trade". Also, Governments will be able to take the plunge against purposeful and avoidable contamination of products.

During an in-market testing in China in 2008, contamination of the bio-active milk protein lactoferrin manufactured by Morrinsville-based cooperative Tatua, and selling for around $500,000 a ton, came to surface.