Thai bakery chain pulls cookies after melamine reports

BANGKOK, Oct 14 - Thai restaurant and bakery S&P said on Tuesday it was withdrawing a line of milk cookies sold in Thailand after reports that Swiss officials had found traces of melamine in the biscuits.

"I have pulled our milk cookies from sale and will submit them for inspection," Vitoon Sila-on, vice-president for business development at S&P Syndicate, told TPBS TV.

Thai newspapers reported that Swiss authorities had pulled the S&P milk cookies, as well as other products from China and Sri Lanka, after tests showed they were tainted by melamine.

Products made with tainted Chinese milk have been pulled off shelves worldwide in a widening health scandal after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk and milk formula.

Vitoon said S&P only used milk powder imported from Australia and condensed milk from a Thai milk producer to make its cookies. He said the company did not export milk cookies to Switzerland.

Thailand's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it was testing samples of the milk cookies and expected results in 24 hours.

"Our initial finding shows that S&P has exported three kinds of cookies -- butter cookies, almond cookies and chocolate chip cookies -- only to Germany," the FDA said in a statement.

The FDA said it has collected 519 samples of products sold in Thailand that contain milk, including cookies, and found no melamine in those products.