have just looked for all possible answers with those letters and melamine (given by baitress above) and gelatine are the only 2 which seem to have any connection with the clue whatsoever
I still can't work out whether it is melamine or gelatine. Sorry, Sparafucile, I may be being extremely dim but what has "NINA" got to do with anything?
Sorry about the delay in answering RocW!
A NINA is a 'message',usually around the perimeter of a puzzle.In this case it reads'Happy birthday Mister President' For more on Ninas see -
http://www.crosswordu.../10/what-is-nina.html