Melamine Resource Center
Melamine is a component of durable thermoset plastic used as countertops, dry erase boards, fabrics, adhesives, housewares and flame retardants. In its adhesive form, it is approved for use in various food contact materials, including packaging.
Melamine is sometimes illegally added to food products in order to increase the apparent protein content. (Standard tests used to estimate protein levels measure overall nitrogen content, so adding nitrogen-rich compounds such as melamine overstates the protein content of a product.) (See "Protein Pretense", Alison Snyder, Scientific American Magazine, August 2007)
Tragically, this kind of melamine addition not only falsifies nutritional information, it also causes kidney failure if the amount eaten is significant relative to body weight.
Melamine amounts in packaging materials are tiny fractions of the levels involved in the criminal addition of melamine to infant formula and pet food since 2007.
In the interest of informing its customers about the safe and the unsafe uses of melamine, Printpack provides this website with summaries of and links to relevant and reliable information.
Recent Studies
EFSA melamine 05-2007
EFSA´S PROVISIONAL STATEMENT ON A REQUEST FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION RELATED TO MELAMINE AND STRUCTURALLY RELATED COMPOUNDS SUCH AS CYANURIC ACID IN PROTEIN-RICH INGREDIENTS USED FOR FEED AND FOOD Download PDF»
EFSA_melamine-09-2008
Statement of EFSA on risks for public health due to the presences of melamine in infant milk and other milk products in China Download PDF»
Melamine Background EU_EFSA
Highly conservative assumptions about imported products made with contaminated Chinese milk indicate no health concerns for adults, but the potential for excessive melamine consumption among children eating large amounts of the imports. Download PDF»
Melamine Background US FDA
Melamine Background: <1.0 ppm melamine in infant formula provides an adequate margin of safety. Download PDF»
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