News
Milk crisis: Ministerial com. meets tomorrow
View(s):A seven-member ministerial committee appointed to probe the milk contamination issue on a Cabinet directive meets tomorrow just as confusion prevails in the market over the sale of milk products, government and milk industry sources said.
With a major milk shortage looming, Public Health Inspectors are seen removing stocks of food items containing whey protein concentrate from a supermarket. With the sale of powdered milk from a leading company banned for two weeks, many people are buying locally made liquid milk, as the inset shows. Pix by Sarath Siriwardene and Indika Handuwala
The committee headed by Health Minister Maithripala Sirisena is expected to submit a report within a week over tests carried out by the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) which found traces of Dicyandiamide (DCD) in batches of milk sold by New Zealand-based Fonterra and Australian-sourced Maliban milk.
The test results revealed earlier have triggered a frenzy in Sri Lanka with mixed signals emanating this week, leaving the consumer more confused on the safety of milk and, more importantly, whether milk is essential in one’s daily diet. A day after two senior Fonterra officials visited Sri Lanka on Thursday for hurried discussions on the crisis, the Gampaha District Court issued a directive banning the distribution of Fonterra products for 14 days, sequel to a petition by the Government Nursing Officers’ Union alleging that the products were being sold despite ITI tests that revealed that the milk was contaminated.
The visit of Johan Priem, acting Managing Director Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Alan Fitzsimmons, Managing Director ISMEA (Indian Sub-continent, Middle East-Africa) of Fonterra coincided with a flurry of activity during the week in which three entrepreneurs told reporters at a media briefing at the historic Independence Square on Monday that milk powder imports should be banned because it was draining foreign exchange resources and instead local milk production should be promoted. But a day later, a group of eminent medical experts confused Sri Lankan consumers saying that the nutritional content in milk could be obtained from other sources and milk was thus not an essential food.
ITI was continuing to test Fonterra samples from consignments now in the port and the results are due shortly, company officials said. Petitions in court were filed only against Fonterra and not Maliban and Diamond though all three were found to contain traces of DCD.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus