Thailand's S&P recalls cookies nationwide

One of Thailand's most popular bakery chains, S&P, said Tuesday it was recalling all its packaged cookies from stores nationwide after Swiss authorities said they found high concentrations of melamine in the Thai biscuits.

"S&P will pull all its cookies from its 280 outlets nationwide as a precautionary measure," said Witoon Sila-on, vice president of business development at S&P Syndicate PCL.

Swiss authorities on Monday said that tests of Milk Cookies S&P found high melamine levels and called on other European countries to withdraw the products.

Witoon said the company had never exported its cookies to Switzerland and questioned where the sample came from. But he said the company would submit samples to Thailand's Food and Drug Administration to determine "whether our cookies are safe for consumption."

Witoon said the cookies in question included milk powder that was imported from Australia and did not use milk powder from China.

Melamine in milk has been blamed in the deaths of four infants and for sickening more than 54,000 others in mainland China.

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Khun Witoon 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 Thai FDA said in a statment.

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