UPDATE > On 22sep08, Taiwan News reported the maker of Mr. Brown, “King Car Food Industrial Co., one of Taiwan’s major food and beverage producers, said Sunday its popular coffee products sold in steel cans is free of melamine…” and that “its canned coffee drinks have consistently used milk powders from Australia or New Zealand that are free of melamine contamination.” (Article: “King Car’s canned coffee drinks free of contamination” http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=745003&lang=eng_news&cate_img=35.jpg&cate_rss=news_Business_TAIWAN)
The FDA statement on the Mr. Brown recall was issued 26sep08.
So now, how comfortable am I with what Walong Marketing said about only sourcing from Australia? One detail from the FDA statement that may be relevant is that the contamination was in a non-dairy creamer ingredient. The varieties of Hello Boss coffee I have on hand (Iced Coffee; French Roast) don’t list non-dairy creamer, only milk.
Asian supermarkets like Ranch 99 have lots of choices of canned coffee and milk tea. Two of the most common are Hello Boss and Mr. Brown. Typically, these have milk or powdered milk as a key ingredient. In light of the melamine scare, my stockpile suddenly didn’t seem so appetizing, and sure enough the FDA has issued a recall on Mr. Brown products: http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2008/NEW01891.html
Regarding Hello Boss coffee, I contacted the distributor, Walong Marketing, and was told they couldn’t make an official statement, but they believe their milk and milk powder comes from Australia. I imagine the FDA is checking other brands of canned coffee after identifying a problem with one of them. If you have further relevant information, please comment.
Also, looks like Hello Boss changed their logo. Wonder why…
