The Dutch food safety watchdog said Tuesday it has found slightly elevated levels of the industrial chemical melamine in cookies imported from China and sold under the Koala brand.
The cookies, which are sold primarily in Chinese supermarkets, are being pulled from the shelves. The chance that they have made anybody sick is "extremely small," the Food and Wares Authority said.
It estimated that people would have had to eat two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of the cookies in order to have consumed more than Dutch safety standards allow.
"The cookies are being pulled back from sales points and should be destroyed," the agency said in a statement.
The milk scandal erupted earlier this month when China's public learned that melamine, which is used to make plastics and fertilizer, had been found in milk powder and was linked to kidney stones in children. Contamination has since turned up in liquid milk, yogurt and other products made with milk. Four deaths have been blamed on the bad milk and some 54,000 children have developed kidney stones or other illnesses after drinking tainted baby formula.
Countries across Asia have removed items from shelves or banned them outright.
No European country has reported a melamine finding before the Dutch report.
British supermarket chain Tesco's removed Chinese-made White Rabbit Creamy Candies from its shelves as a precaution amid reports that samples of the milk candy in Singapore and New Zealand had tested positive for melamine.
On Thursday, the European Union announced a total ban on imports of any baby food products from China that contain traces of milk.
France went further by banning the sale of all goods containing derivatives of Chinese dairy products.
The EU does not import dairy goods from China, but the bloc warned that other products, such as chocolate, candy and cookies, might contain milk.
The Dutch watchdog began checking Chinese imports last week "as a precaution."
It said it had looked at 47 samples of food products and found the elevated melamine levels in two sorts of the Koala cookies.
The agency said it had instructed the importer to halt sales of the cookies and notified the European Commission's alert system for contaminated food.
It said it planned to examine more Chinese products in the coming weeks but "businesses are themselves responsible for ensuring products on the market" are safe.
