BRITAIN — Until Chinese infants began sickening and dying this past September due to the presence of melamine in their formula, most of the world had little knowledge of the toxic resin. With its deadly presence appearing throughout the world in human food products as diverse as milk, pastry treats and candy, the World Health Organization has called the situation one of the largest food safety events, and an ever-increasing number of people are becoming aware of melamine’s dangers. In Britain, those dangers now include sexual novelty items.Apparently added illegally in order to make edible items appear to have more protein than they do, kidney stones and damage from melamine has killed at least four infants and sickened at least another 94,000 victims in China so far.

In 2007, the chemical was found in at least 5300 pet food products shipped from China. The affected feed caused renal failure and death in more than 100 of the 500 animals known to have been poisoned by it. The tragedies launched a broad investigation into the source of the contamination and ways to prevent future incidences.

In addition to claims that the government would uncover how so much of the chemical wound up in food, Premier Wen Jiabao told his nation that he felt “extremely guilty” about the poisonings. President Hu Jintau blamed the situation on “illegally production and greed.”

Now that greed is found to have resulted in contamination of edible items that most people don’t even think about, even if they know that they exist: sex play taste treats.

Erotic food items on British retain shelves found to contain small amounts of melamine currently include chocolate and strawberry “body pens,” as well as chocolate lotion products.

Although shops including Ann Summers have removed the products from their inventory, the Food Standards Agency assures consumers that the levels of melamine are low and are likely of little or no risk to those who may have already consumed erotic items containing the chemical. Nonetheless, the agency has issued a cautionary alert – the first of its kind concerning edible sex products.