Hong Kong finds melamine in two Cadbury products

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A Hong Kong laboratory has found excessive amounts of the industrial chemical melamine in two types of Cadbury chocolate made in China that the firm recalled last week as a precaution.

Thousands of children in China have fallen sick and four have died after drinking melamine-laced milk. The dairy scare, China's latest in a long line of food safety problems, also prompted mounting recalls and warnings abroad.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Cookies Chocolate Bulk Pack 5kg was found to contain with 6.9 parts per million (ppm) of melamine and Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut Chocolate Bulk Pack 5 kg had 56 ppm, a government statement said.

Under Hong Kong regulations, the limit for melamine in these products is 2.5 ppm.

"Based on the levels detected, the public is advised to stop consuming the products concerned," a spokesman for Hong Kong's Center for Food Safety said.

The British confectionary group last Monday announced the recall of 11 Chinese-made products from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia as the scandal snowballed.

Tests in Hong Kong cleared another of the recalled products, which was not named in the government statement, bringing to six the number of Cadbury products with satisfactory levels of melamine so far.

Three products were not available for tests, the Hong Kong government statement said.

Chinese police have detained six people suspected of producing and selling melamine, the official Xinhua news agency said.

(Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)