Japanese chain finds melamine in pizza: official

TOKYO: A Japanese restaurant chain served small amounts of the toxic chemical melamine in its pizza due to powdered milk imported from China, the health ministry said Monday.

Saizeriya detected the chemical - which is behind a global health scare that has sickened thousands of babies in China - in dough from pizzas served at branches in northern and eastern Japan on October 1 and 2.

The amount was small and should not harm diners, a ministry official said, adding that there were no reports of people falling sick.

"The ingredient was imported before the Japanese government required inspections of all milk products imported from China for melamine," he said.

Saizeriya determined that it had served melamine after the government ordered all food vendors to examine their inventories, the official said.

Japan, which imports most of its food, has been on high alert for melamine after the chemical was found in a number of products starting last month.

The bad milk scandal that has killed four infants and sickened 53,000 throughout China. The industrial chemical, normally used to make plastic, was added to watered-down milk to make it appear higher in protein.

Japan has also been investigating a separate case in which frozen green beans imported from China were found to have thousands of times the permissible level of pesticides, sickening at least one woman this month.