Monday, 26 August 2013 00:00
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Hinting that the milk powder crisis in Sri Lanka is easing up, the enjoining order banning all Fonterra products from being distributed, sold and advertised was lifted last Friday. However, the Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) came under a fresh round of heavy fire from Maliban milk that has even offered a reward of Rs. 1 million if the presence of contamination can be proven in any batch of its milk.
So sensitive has the tiff become that the Australian company has even hinted of diplomatic repercussions if the presence of DCD (dicyandiamide) in a batch of Maliban non-fat milk powder is not transparently proven.
The ITI had ruled out the presence of DCD in Maliban full cream milk powder or any of the Maliban brand milk products except from a sample taken from a batch of its non-fat milk powder, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Lakshman Weerasuriya had told media. He added he suspected some “jugglery” of changing samples before or after laboratory testing.
The company’s stance is no country had found DCD or any other toxic residues in Australian milk powder during the past 100 years and Australian authorities had expressed serious concern on the sudden DCD findings in the non-fat milk powder sold here.
Claiming that Australia had sent an accredited laboratory report confirming that milk powder supplied by it were free of DCD, Weerasuriya said he believed that the Australian government would take the matter up with the Sri Lankan Government at diplomatic level, a Sunday newspaper reported, showing the seriousness of the situation.
The Australian government had also issued a certificate on quality standard of the country’s milk powder along with a certificate from Murray Goulburn Co-operative Company Ltd., the largest dairy industry in Australia. The certification insists that DCD was never used in Australia, which makes its presence in Maliban milk inexplicable.
The milk business is clearly big business. Australia, next to giant Fonterra from New Zealand, has the largest stake in Sri Lanka’s lucrative market. This means that any scientific research done on products need to be done in a state-of-the-art facility, and an internationally recognised, transparent and reputed manner. Government authorities need to empower ITI to ensure that such standards are achieved and as importantly, are seen to be achieved.
Last week, Technology Minister Champika Ranawaka, who staunchly backed ITI during the DCD episode, acknowledged that tests done on Fonterra milk for DCD after 1 June were negative. However, the enigmatic Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) then cast doubts about these findings based on the fact that the Health Ministry had obtained the samples.
It is therefore clear that ITI needs to be given the power to conduct their tests independently from beginning to end so that they are not unfairly doubted. At the same time, what they find and how they find it must also be made clear to the public and the companies whose reputation is in their hands.
Food contamination is rife in Sri Lanka with fruits, vegetables and meats doused excessively in pesticides, injected with growth hormones or imported with negative materials. ITI’s mandate needs to be expanded and reinforced but not as another round of red tape that makes people sigh in exasperation, but an institution that is genuinely empowered for the good of the people.
