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Milk crisis: NZ Govt. officials here for talks
New Zealand Government officials who arrived in Sri Lanka this week on a trouble-shooting mission held discussions with the authorities on Thursday over a raging debate on suspected Dicyandiamide (DCD) contamination of milk products from that country.
Amidst confusion and virtual chaos over who has stopped what, the Sunday Times yesterday captured this picture of a supermarket employee taking packets of powdered milk food off the shelves. Pic by Indika Handuwala
A spokesman from Fonterra’s Sri Lanka office confirmed the visit and said that Fonterra was providing all the information required to both Governments to clear any doubts over the safety of its products. There was no immediate comment from the Sri Lankan authorities on these discussions.
These developments emerged after suspected DCD contamination in imported milk powder came to the fore again, following testing of random samples by the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI).
The positively-tested samples, taken randomly from the market, manufactured several months ago came from two Anchor products (Anchor Full Cream and Anchor 1+) and Maliban (non-fat) and Diamond. Samples of local products, Highland and Pelwatte, however, showed no traces of DCD.
Fonterra, which has repeatedly said there is no DCD in its milk shipped to Sri Lanka, has disputed the ITI testing saying the procedure was wrong. ITI stands by its process.
The new findings by ITI, several months after the earlier crisis in which tests in foreign labs ordered by health authorities here came with mixed results (one test said there was no DCD in the samples of different milk powder sent, while the other concluded there were traces of DCD), has thrown the entire milk production and distribution market off gear.
As the debate unfolded, the Health Ministry ordered all milk powder with any DCD content off the shelves and requested media companies not to publish, broadcast or telecast milk powder advertisements that would mislead the public. Consumers, whom the Sunday Times spoke to, were confused by the mixed messages appearing in the media and from shops and stores selling milk powder.
The crisis has hit Fonterra the most as it is Sri Lanka’s biggest milk powder supplier. What has compounded the issue is that the ITI tests have also found Maliban’s Australian-sourced milk to contain DCD though Australian authorities, when the earlier DCD crisis broke out in January-March 2013, categorically said DCD had never been used in its pastures.
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