Melemine in Halloween Candy

K.,

I sent an email to my friends about the possibility of poisoned candy - although it sounds like maybe it was sent to Canada only. That particular candy was made in China. The same ingredients that sickened and killed some infants through baby formula was used in these chocolate coins.
Read my email below, and a friend's response. She speaks highly of Mars products, because they are made in Waco under strict guidelines. My email is at the very end; hers is a response. Hope this helps!

S.,

Thanks for bringing this up – it is a great reminder.

Just for your own knowledge, there is a Mars factory in Waco that makes most of the candy we get here. While at Baylor we talked about Mars and their factory. Mars is owned privately by a family, plus they are really “green” as you will see below. We will be eating only Mars candy this year.

Here are the brands they produce -

snack food
M&M’S®, SNICKERS®, MILKY WAY®, 3 MUSKETEERS®, DOVE®, SKITTLES®, STARBURST®, KUDOS®, COMBOS®, MY M&M’S®, My DOVE®, MUNCH®, TWIX®, COCOAVIA®, GENERATION MAX™. WORLD OF GRAINS™

Methane gas from city landfill powers Waco snack food plant
As part of a company-wide effort to reduce its environmental footprint around the world, Mars, Incorporated is striving to make its operations more sustainable at every level.

As a recent example, one of the company’s largest U.S. snack food plants located in Waco, Texas has converted 60% of its heating fuel source from natural gas to methane gas harvested from the city landfill. With enough supply to power the plant’s boilers for the next 25 years, Mars is significantly reducing its carbon footprint and production costs.

Using renewable methane will save the company over half a million dollars a year – and potentially more if gas prices continue to rise. It will also reduce the plant’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10,000 metric tons. That is equivalent to removing 1,900 cars from the road, planting 2,300 acres of pine or fir forest, heating 2,700 homes or saving 24,000 barrels of oil.

“All Snickers made at Waco will be truly green,” said Todd Lachman, president of Mars Snackfood U.S., at the kick-off celebration in May, “not in color, but in the way in which they are manufactured. Snickers, Starburst and Skittles will all be made in a plant powered in large part by renewable energy.”

Replacing natural gas with methane rather than other green energy sources provides a double benefit for the city of Waco and the environment, since city landfills account for the second largest source of human-related methane emissions in the U.S.

“Using all the methane that the landfill produces solves a local and a global environmental problem,” said David Prybylowski, sustainability director for Mars Snackfood US. “Mars is removing methane emissions in the city, eliminating the risk of combustion and reducing powerful global warming gasses.”

The natural byproduct of decomposing organic matter, methane is 20 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide and is also highly flammable. Because of these physical and environmental concerns, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates that municipalities and counties capture and mitigate methane gases once landfills reach a certain size. Mars helps Waco do just that by recycling this material for fuel.

BELOW IS THE EMAIL I SENT TO FRIENDS:

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Subject: poisoned Halloween candy - maybe just Canada

There is information going around about chocolate coins that have been laced with a poison. The story is true, unfortunately.

It seems to be confined to Canada and not in the United States of America. However, it's a good reminder to be very careful about all types of candy your child may eat this holiday season. These chocolate coins were made in CHINA and marketed under the Sherwood Brand as Pirate's Gold Coins. Remember, China has had several infant deaths due to contaminated formula. The same poisons were used in these chocolate coins. Possibly China makes a lot of our candy (as well as so many other things), so I would be very, very careful about what you eat.

http://www.snopes.com/food/warnings/coins.asp

http://www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/recarapp/200...

Spread the word and include these links, so people know it's not a hoax. Again, even though this particular candy seems to be marketed only in Canada, we should all be on the alert.

S.

I read somewhere that the gold coins were made in China and distributed through out Canada, which made me feel a little better. They apparently were sold at Costcos, but surely they wouldn't make it to TX? I have already told my daughter we will be throwing away any gold coins, then just hoping for the best with the rest of her candy. It's sad that we have to worry about this, but I remember being a kid 25-30 years ago and there were rumors about people putting razor blades and LSD in candy - so I guess parents have had to worry about this for years! My advice is to look through their candy, throw out anything suspicious (including any gold coins), then enjoy the rest! At least that's what we'll be doing. Have fun!

I just wanted to let you know I too received an email about that. I don't know of a website, but stay in the neighborhood where you know your kids are safe, it's awful how this world works. I throw away without even checking if the wrapper is half on, anything that doesn't seem right. I could be fine, but I don't want to take any chances.
Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

all of the candy with the melemine was supposed to be pulled from the shelves..the gold coins were supposedly the only ones that got through. I guess just check their candy and if its made in China, throw it away-this is what we will do! HTH