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Having a bowl of steaming hot soup may not be as healthy as one might think, a new study said, citing melamine ingestion may cause harm.

Melamine is a toxic chemical released from tableware that has it when exposed to boiling-hot substances, researchers at the Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan said in a study published online at JAMA Internal Medicine.

Their study, involving a dozen healthy adult volunteers, detected traces of melamine in urine following consumption of noodle soup consumed from non-breakable melamine bowls.

Melamine is widely used in fertilizers and to make plastic resins, and under normal circumstances, is generally a stable compound. In the U.S., melamine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for manufacturing cooking utensils, plastic and paper products.

In 2008, a scandal erupted in China when melamine powder was added to infant formula to boost the food's protein content leading to 50,000 hospitalizations and six deaths.

Researchers led by Dr. Chia-Fang Wu say that the amount of melamine released into food and drinks from melamine dishes varies by brand.

"Although the clinical significance of what levels of urinary melamine concentration has not yet been established, the consequences of long-term melamine exposure still should be of concern," they wrote.

Melamine excretion among the study's volunteers totaled 8.35 micrograms in those whose soup was served in melamine bowls, compared with 1.31 micrograms in the control group.

It's unclear whether the amount of melamine released from the bowls is enough to cause health problems,but the researchers say the results raise concerns that the compound should be studied more, especially under normal eating conditions in which tableware may be microwaved or hold hot foods.