Two consignments of milk detained

Two shipments of milk powder(Anchor and Raththi) have been detained at the Colombo Port since Friday, Director General of Health Services, Dr. Ajith Mendis said yesterday. He said that the officers at the port detained the two shipments on the same day, after they discovered that they were imported from China.
“After we discovered that they were imported from China, we immediately detained them and we sent samples to the Government Analyst in order to find out whether they contain melamine. The stocks will not be released to the market until the Analyst confirms that they do not contain melamine,” Dr. Mendis said.
He added that the results of the tests will be presented to the Health Ministry officials within a week.The Health Services Director General further said if the milk powder were found to be contaminated with melamine, it would be shipped back to China. The Health Ministry keeps a close eye on all milk product imports and this discovery was the result of that vigilance, he stated.“There are milk products that are manufactured in China or products from other countries under different brand names, but still, manufactured using milk from China,”
Dr. Mendis pointed out and added, “So, we keep a very close eye on all the milk food imports.”Earlier this month, samples of milk food, which were collected from Colombo, were sent to a laboratory in Singapore to determine whether they contained melamine.

Also, the Health Ministry banned the import or sale of several milk products including ‘Dutch Lady’ made in Malaysia.“When news broke out that the Chinese have found melamine in milk food manufactured there, and the contaminated milk powder caused the death and hospitalisation of many babies, there was worldwide panic.

But there are no such occurrences in Sri Lanka and we have taken steps to ensure contaminated milk products do not enter the country,” Dr. Mendis assured. (RK)