Lankan tests for all imported milk powder
The Sri Lankan Government, despite strong assurances from New Zealand over the safety of its milk, has ordered tests of all imported milk powder with immediate effect to ascertain whether it contains Dicyandiamide (DCD) – even in minute quantities. This is also apart from the World Health Organisation informing the Health Ministry in a report that DCD is not harmful.
Dr. Ananda Jayalal, Director Environmental Health, Occupational Health and Food Safety of the Health Ministry, told the Business Times that the Imported Food Inspection Unit of the Food Administration Unit of the Ministry of Health screening all imported milk powder have deployed its food inspectors to check whether the stocks contain DCD in any of the imported milk powder stocks at the point of import.
In a statement (which is reproduced in more detail inside), Leon Clement, Managing Director Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka said DCD has never been a food safety issue. “The table salt sitting in your kitchen is a bigger potential health risk as DCD is more than three times safer than common table salt,” he added.
Dr. Jayalal said samples of imported milk powder obtained at the point of entry (port) will be air freighted to overseas laboratories selected by them for DCD testing, but he declined to name the countries where these laboratories are located.
The milk powder stocks will not be released till the lab reports are received. This will take a few days, he revealed.
If the reports indicate the presence of DCD in any of the samples, then the relevant stocks will be re-exported to the source country. He said this action has been taken by the Health Ministry to clear any doubts of consumers on the DCD contamination issue.
In addition from June 1, the Ministry has made it compulsory for milk powder importers to present a certificate certifying that there are no substances like DCD or any other substance that is harmful and injurious to the health of consumers in milk powder.
A clause that lab investigations have been made in this regard should be included in the certificate, he added.
He said that results of a lab test conducted in Singapore on some milk samples sent by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) revealed the presence of DCD in minute quantities in five different brands.
The Health Ministry’s Food Advisory Committee has also directed the CAA to conduct another foreign lab test on samples of all milk powder brands including locally produced milk powder, he disclosed.
CAA Chairman Rumy Marzook told Business Times that the CAA has collected samples of all milk powder brands from the shelves of supermarkets and other retail out lets on Thursday, May 30 and this would be air freighted soon to three reputed and accredited laboratories overseas.
He declined to name the countries.
This will clear the doubts of consumers on milk powder currently being sold at the local market, he added.
In the meantime, a consumer Kamal Saliya Samarasinghe of Hulangamuwa Road, Matale has filed two letters of demand, through his lawyer, to the authorities demanding that the test results of the milk samples be revealed to the public and for further independent tests to be undertaken.
In a letter to Dr. Pradeep Kariyawasam, Chief Medical Officer, Colombo Municipal Council, the complainant says the fact that milk powder imported from New Zealand contained DCD has been concealed across the world until January 2013.
Mr. Samarasinghe’s letter to CAA Chairman Mr. Marzook says that it is the primary duty of the CAA under the law to “to advise the members of public whenever necessary of the concerns that may arise from time to time particularly on edible items that are unsafe to human health”.
He said, “You would be failing in your duties by not making the people aware of the actual state of affairs in respect to the impugned contamination of milk powder imported from New Zealand, and not releasing the outcome of such laboratory report to the general public”.
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