Confusions compounded over melamine in milk
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
Shamsul Huq Zahid
The bureaucracy in Bangladesh is infamous for fouling up things. Such a notion has turned out to be true again in case of imported powdered milk.
The ministry of health, headed by a former bureaucrat, has given rise to more problems and more controversies while handling the issue of melamine in imported brands of powdered milk.
The issue has now been taken to the higher court which is doing what is necessary to know the truth and bring an end to consumers' confusion. The High Court bench concerned while passing orders last Monday demonstrated its lack of faith in its government's ability to resolve the issue.
The bench ordered the government to conduct fresh laboratory tests on all brands of powdered milk available in the market barring three which, according to earlier official announcement, were tested melamine positive. However, instead of asking the government to arrange the fresh tests, the bench asked the chemistry department of the Dhaka University, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) and the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) to collect samples of all milk brands from the market in presence of the representatives of the companies concerned and conduct laboratory tests on the same. The health ministry has been asked to submit the test reports before the court through the registrar of the Supreme Court.
If media reports are true (there is no reason to dismiss the reports since the health ministry has not contradicted the same), the consumers do need to demand explanation from the government for concealing facts.
The health adviser on November 03 last announced that only three Chinese milk brands-Yashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby-2, out of the eight brands had been found melamine positive during tests carried out at a Thai and two local laboratories. According to a newspaper report, the ministry while making the test results public had in its hand the BAEC test results that detected melamine in seven out of eight brands in question. But, for reasons best known to it, the ministry did not disclose the BAEC findings. The government last Sunday submitted reports of all laboratory tests, including the one from the BAEC, before the High Court (HC).
Consumers were thrown into utter confusion when the health adviser brushed aside the findings of the DU chemistry department test on imported milk brands. The department had detected melamine in all eight brands eight brands sent by the BSTI for testing.
The health adviser rather found the test results of the BSTI and a private laboratory-the Plasma Plus, dependable. Both the institutions claimed to have found only one brand, Yashili-1, melamine positive.
But following public outcry, the government sent samples of eight brands for tests to the laboratories of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), the BAEC and a FAO recognized private laboratory in Thailand.
This time BAEC detected the presence of melamine in seven brands and the BCSIR and the Thai laboratory detected the industrial chemical only in three Chinese brands.
The health adviser decided not to make public the BAEC results while questioning the capability of both DU chemistry department and the BAEC in testing such 'complicated' tests.
However, the DU chemistry department has been consistent in sticking to its findings. The BAEC being a government entity, for understandable reasons, did not dare to annoy the health ministry.
But the past records of the BAEC do speak otherwise. Soon after the nuclear mishap in Chernobyl in the mid eighties, a consignment of powdered milk imported from Poland reached Bangladesh. It was BAEC that detected high radiation level in that milk. Detection of melamine in milk should be an easier job than that of radioactive elements on the part of BAEC!
Moreover, why should the government waste public money on research institutes that are not capable of conducting a simple laboratory tests? Actually, it should have been the job of the BSTI alone, none else, to come out with credible results. But the fact remains that the BSTI does not have the required manpower, equipment and, more importantly, the efficiency to prove its worth.
Now that the court has ordered the DU chemistry department, the BAEC and the BSTI to test all the milk brands found on the grocers' shelves, the consumer would be expecting a uniform result. But what if they differ? Should this confusion continue unendingly?
What is important is that all the three laboratories should follow a uniform testing procedure. Since the health ministry has been entrusted with the responsibility of collecting the test results and submit the same through the SC registrar, the HC bench concerned might consider issuing a directive in this connection.
Though the consumers cannot be certain about the purity of the liquid milk they buy from the market, it is high time that the government and the private sector consider beefing up the production of cow-milk locally.
According to a newspaper report, the potentials of the local dairy industry have remained largely untapped despite having one of the highest numbers of cattle. Low milk-yield per cow because of a number of reasons, including inadequate improvements in breeding and veterinary services, shortage of better quality feed and fodders, has kept the country dependent on imported powdered milk. The country last year imported powdered milk worth US$ 158 million (Tk 11.20 billion).
The milk yield per cow during a 10-month lactation period is between 200-250 litres, which is 800 litres in Pakistan and 500 litres in India.
If the government provides the much-needed thrust to dairies, both commercial and home-based, by making available all the facilities, including finance, the domestic production of milk would go up considerably with in a short period.
The bureaucracy in Bangladesh is infamous for fouling up things. Such a notion has turned out to be true again in case of imported powdered milk.
The ministry of health, headed by a former bureaucrat, has given rise to more problems and more controversies while handling the issue of melamine in imported brands of powdered milk.
The issue has now been taken to the higher court which is doing what is necessary to know the truth and bring an end to consumers' confusion. The High Court bench concerned while passing orders last Monday demonstrated its lack of faith in its government's ability to resolve the issue.
The bench ordered the government to conduct fresh laboratory tests on all brands of powdered milk available in the market barring three which, according to earlier official announcement, were tested melamine positive. However, instead of asking the government to arrange the fresh tests, the bench asked the chemistry department of the Dhaka University, the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) and the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) to collect samples of all milk brands from the market in presence of the representatives of the companies concerned and conduct laboratory tests on the same. The health ministry has been asked to submit the test reports before the court through the registrar of the Supreme Court.
If media reports are true (there is no reason to dismiss the reports since the health ministry has not contradicted the same), the consumers do need to demand explanation from the government for concealing facts.
The health adviser on November 03 last announced that only three Chinese milk brands-Yashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby-2, out of the eight brands had been found melamine positive during tests carried out at a Thai and two local laboratories. According to a newspaper report, the ministry while making the test results public had in its hand the BAEC test results that detected melamine in seven out of eight brands in question. But, for reasons best known to it, the ministry did not disclose the BAEC findings. The government last Sunday submitted reports of all laboratory tests, including the one from the BAEC, before the High Court (HC).
Consumers were thrown into utter confusion when the health adviser brushed aside the findings of the DU chemistry department test on imported milk brands. The department had detected melamine in all eight brands eight brands sent by the BSTI for testing.
The health adviser rather found the test results of the BSTI and a private laboratory-the Plasma Plus, dependable. Both the institutions claimed to have found only one brand, Yashili-1, melamine positive.
But following public outcry, the government sent samples of eight brands for tests to the laboratories of the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), the BAEC and a FAO recognized private laboratory in Thailand.
This time BAEC detected the presence of melamine in seven brands and the BCSIR and the Thai laboratory detected the industrial chemical only in three Chinese brands.
The health adviser decided not to make public the BAEC results while questioning the capability of both DU chemistry department and the BAEC in testing such 'complicated' tests.
However, the DU chemistry department has been consistent in sticking to its findings. The BAEC being a government entity, for understandable reasons, did not dare to annoy the health ministry.
But the past records of the BAEC do speak otherwise. Soon after the nuclear mishap in Chernobyl in the mid eighties, a consignment of powdered milk imported from Poland reached Bangladesh. It was BAEC that detected high radiation level in that milk. Detection of melamine in milk should be an easier job than that of radioactive elements on the part of BAEC!
Moreover, why should the government waste public money on research institutes that are not capable of conducting a simple laboratory tests? Actually, it should have been the job of the BSTI alone, none else, to come out with credible results. But the fact remains that the BSTI does not have the required manpower, equipment and, more importantly, the efficiency to prove its worth.
Now that the court has ordered the DU chemistry department, the BAEC and the BSTI to test all the milk brands found on the grocers' shelves, the consumer would be expecting a uniform result. But what if they differ? Should this confusion continue unendingly?
What is important is that all the three laboratories should follow a uniform testing procedure. Since the health ministry has been entrusted with the responsibility of collecting the test results and submit the same through the SC registrar, the HC bench concerned might consider issuing a directive in this connection.
Though the consumers cannot be certain about the purity of the liquid milk they buy from the market, it is high time that the government and the private sector consider beefing up the production of cow-milk locally.
According to a newspaper report, the potentials of the local dairy industry have remained largely untapped despite having one of the highest numbers of cattle. Low milk-yield per cow because of a number of reasons, including inadequate improvements in breeding and veterinary services, shortage of better quality feed and fodders, has kept the country dependent on imported powdered milk. The country last year imported powdered milk worth US$ 158 million (Tk 11.20 billion).
The milk yield per cow during a 10-month lactation period is between 200-250 litres, which is 800 litres in Pakistan and 500 litres in India.
If the government provides the much-needed thrust to dairies, both commercial and home-based, by making available all the facilities, including finance, the domestic production of milk would go up considerably with in a short period.