Govt keeps decision on toxic milk brands pending

The government has avoided a concrete decision on sales of toxic milk brands and opted to wait for further test results, leaving the question whether or not to consume the melamine-added baby formulas to individual’s choice until then.
Though the chemistry department of Dhaka University repeatedly stood by its test results detecting presence of melamine in samples of eight foreign milk powder brands, the commerce ministry has said that was not enough for ordering a ban on sales or withdrawal of the products from shelves.
‘We are not in a position right now to make any conclusion as there was significant variation in the test reports prepared by three organisations,’ commerce secretary Feroz Ahmed said after a meeting Sunday.
The meeting was expected to deliver concrete guidelines for anxious consumers about which milk brands they should choose for their babies after the latest test confirmed melamine in most-selling eight brands.
But it ended up in deciding to form a 12-memebr committee and assign it to supervise further tests of the same batch of disputed milk brand samples in two local and one foreign laboratories, and report back to the ministry in seven working days.
Asked if the people should continue to consume the milk brands in question until then, the commerce secretary left it to the consumers’ choice saying that it was an individual decision whether to buy them or not.
‘We will not take any liability,’ he said as he was asked whether the government would bear the responsibility for public health hazards in case the brands are found melamine positive in further tests.
He rather reminded a questioner about the ministry’s ‘responsibility’ to look into the interests of the companies and their agents which invested crores of taka in the business.
Asked whether the ministry told the companies and their agents to keep their sales suspended during the period of testing, the commerce secretary said they [companies] claimed that there was no existence of melamine in their tests.
After a test by Dhaka University’s chemistry department had found presence of industrial chemical melamine in eight particular brands of imported milk powder, the government on October 16 advised the people to refrain from using them.
The brands are Sweetbaby, Yashli-1, Yashli-2, New Zealand’s Nido Fortified Instant, Anlin, Australia’s Diploma and Red Cow and Dano of Denmark.
Abu Zafar Mahmud, a professor of chemistry at Dhaka University, stood by the test report prepared by the department. He, however, said that it would unscientific not to give others’ opportunity to debate and make repeat tests.
The commerce secretary mentioned that repeat tests would be conducted at two local laboratories and one accredited laboratory abroad and accordingly, the 12-member committee would submit a report to the government for taking necessary action.
The committee will be comprised of two representatives from the DU chemistry department, three from the Bangladesh Automatic Energy Commission, three from the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research [Science Laboratory], two from Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution and one each from the health ministry and private laboratory PlasmaPlus.
The samples will be collected from the market by a ‘neutral committee’ comprising representatives from commerce, health and industries ministries, BSTI and also from the respective companies.
Based on laboratory tests, the experts’ committee will examine whether the powdered milk contained melamine and assess the level of contamination and the possible health risks, the secretary said.
Meanwhile, the council of adviser, at a meeting with chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed in the chair Sunday, expressed concern at the situation arising out of the melamine contamination of imported powder milk, mostly consumed by children, and asked the authorities concerned to settle the issue within the shortest possible time.

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