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20860
Tue, 09/23/2008 - 23:20
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News Focus: RI JOINS OTHER ASEAN COUNTRIES IN BANNING CHINESE DAIRYPRODUCTS By Eliswan Azly
Jakarta, Sept 23 (ANTARA) - Indonesia joined other Asean countries in banning the distribution of imported milk from China and advised the public to temporarily stop consuming all types of dairy products from China to avoid being poisoned by melamine.
The Malaysian health ministry, for example, had earlier banned the distribution of all Chinese milk brands in the country, while Singapore also stopped importing Chinese milk after conducting an investigation into the two Chinese milk brands which allegedly contained melamine.
In addition, Japan, Thailand, and Brunei had reportedly banned Chinese-made dairy products from entering their respective country to prevent further unexpected fatal consequences among infants.
Now, it was the turn for Indonesia to stop importing all dairy products from China. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) was currently checking all Chinese dairy products, the results of which would be available in the next three days, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry Lily S Sulistyowati said Tuesday.
According to her , the ministry had instructed the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to investigate the contaminated formula milk from China which had caused thousands of babies in that country to get sick with a number of them even reported to have died.
"We don't know the results yet but we need to be alert to the problem," she quoted Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari as saying.
A formula milk brand containing melamine -- an ingredient in plastic and fertilizer -- was recently identified as the cause of illness in thousands of babies in China.
The tally of children sickened by tainted milk in China jumped to nearly 53,000 as the government vowed to crack down on those responsible for the scandal, which has raised more questions about the safety of the country's food chain.
Most of the 12,892 children hospitalized in recent weeks were 2 years old or younger, the Chinese Health Ministry said in a statement posted on its website late Sunday. The statement said most consumed infant formula from one company, the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the center of one of China's worst food safety scandals in years.
Another 39,965 children received outpatient treatment at hospitals and were considered "basically recovered," the ministry said.
Over the weekend, the Chinese territory of Hong Kong reported the first known illness outside mainland China - a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese dairy products. She was discharged from the hospital, a Hong Kong government statement said.
In the two weeks since the government first acknowledged the contamination, it has issued recalls for dairy products from 22 companies after tests turned up traces of the industrial chemical melamine. The statement said that most of the hospitalized were sickened by Sanlu brand baby formula.
"No cases have been found from ingesting liquid milk," the statement said.
The Chinese ministry did not explain the sudden increase in the number of cases, from 6,200 on Saturday, but it suggested health officials were combing through hospital records from May through August to trace the origins of the contamination. The deaths of three infants linked to tainted infant formula occurred in those months.
In Hong Kong, parents of a 3-year-old girl took her for a checkup because she had been drinking milk made by Chinese dairy Yili Industrial Group Co. every day for the past 15 months. Yili was among the 22 companies whose products were recalled for melamine contamination.
Beijing has launched high-profile efforts to show it is on top of the crisis, with Premier Wen Jiabao appearing on state-run television Sunday to say diary companies had to show more "social responsibility."
"The government will put more efforts into food security, taking the incident as a warning," Wen was quoted by AP as saying on Sunday.
"What we are trying to do is to ensure no such event happens in future, by punishing those responsible leaders as well as enterprises. None of those companies lacking professional ethics or social morals will be let off," Wen said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Serious food and product safety scandals have been a feature of Chinese life. The country's image took a beating last year when exports of medicines, toys, pet food ingredients and other products killed and sickened people and animals in North and South America.
The chemical in the dangerous pet food was the same as in the milk scandal - melamine.
At the time, the government promised to overhaul inspection procedures and crack down on companies that took shortcuts.
The crisis has included almost all of China's biggest dairy companies. Their products have been pulled from stores around the country, and in other places such as the autonomous Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.
So far, the contamination of melamine in Chinese dairy products had been found not only in baby milk, but also in other types of dairy products such as yogurt and candy.
Lily said that there was only one brand of dairy milk products from China circulating legally in Indonesia -- Guozhen -- and that its products were for adult consumption.
However, Lily said, the Indonesian health ministry had been since Sept. 18 conducting field monitoring on possible illegal distribution of all kinds of dairy products from China. "We have notified regional BPOM branches to conduct monitoring."
Such similar contamination in milk, the Central Jakarta District Court last month ever ordered two government bodies and another organization to announce the brand of baby formula milk contaminated with the Enterobacter Sakazaki bacteria.
The court granted the request of David M. L. Tobing, who demanded that the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Foods and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the Health Ministry reveal the contaminated formula milk brand.
The research, carried out from April to June 2006, revealed 22 percent of baby formula samples tested were contaminated by the bacteria, which could cause serious illness, even death, in infants. However, Minister Fadilah could not follow the court order because her ministry did not have data on the formula brands.
The Malaysian health ministry, for example, had earlier banned the distribution of all Chinese milk brands in the country, while Singapore also stopped importing Chinese milk after conducting an investigation into the two Chinese milk brands which allegedly contained melamine.
In addition, Japan, Thailand, and Brunei had reportedly banned Chinese-made dairy products from entering their respective country to prevent further unexpected fatal consequences among infants.
Now, it was the turn for Indonesia to stop importing all dairy products from China. The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) was currently checking all Chinese dairy products, the results of which would be available in the next three days, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry Lily S Sulistyowati said Tuesday.
According to her , the ministry had instructed the Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) to investigate the contaminated formula milk from China which had caused thousands of babies in that country to get sick with a number of them even reported to have died.
"We don't know the results yet but we need to be alert to the problem," she quoted Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari as saying.
A formula milk brand containing melamine -- an ingredient in plastic and fertilizer -- was recently identified as the cause of illness in thousands of babies in China.
The tally of children sickened by tainted milk in China jumped to nearly 53,000 as the government vowed to crack down on those responsible for the scandal, which has raised more questions about the safety of the country's food chain.
Most of the 12,892 children hospitalized in recent weeks were 2 years old or younger, the Chinese Health Ministry said in a statement posted on its website late Sunday. The statement said most consumed infant formula from one company, the Shijiazhuang Sanlu Group Co., the dairy at the center of one of China's worst food safety scandals in years.
Another 39,965 children received outpatient treatment at hospitals and were considered "basically recovered," the ministry said.
Over the weekend, the Chinese territory of Hong Kong reported the first known illness outside mainland China - a 3-year-old girl who developed kidney stones after drinking Chinese dairy products. She was discharged from the hospital, a Hong Kong government statement said.
In the two weeks since the government first acknowledged the contamination, it has issued recalls for dairy products from 22 companies after tests turned up traces of the industrial chemical melamine. The statement said that most of the hospitalized were sickened by Sanlu brand baby formula.
"No cases have been found from ingesting liquid milk," the statement said.
The Chinese ministry did not explain the sudden increase in the number of cases, from 6,200 on Saturday, but it suggested health officials were combing through hospital records from May through August to trace the origins of the contamination. The deaths of three infants linked to tainted infant formula occurred in those months.
In Hong Kong, parents of a 3-year-old girl took her for a checkup because she had been drinking milk made by Chinese dairy Yili Industrial Group Co. every day for the past 15 months. Yili was among the 22 companies whose products were recalled for melamine contamination.
Beijing has launched high-profile efforts to show it is on top of the crisis, with Premier Wen Jiabao appearing on state-run television Sunday to say diary companies had to show more "social responsibility."
"The government will put more efforts into food security, taking the incident as a warning," Wen was quoted by AP as saying on Sunday.
"What we are trying to do is to ensure no such event happens in future, by punishing those responsible leaders as well as enterprises. None of those companies lacking professional ethics or social morals will be let off," Wen said, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
Serious food and product safety scandals have been a feature of Chinese life. The country's image took a beating last year when exports of medicines, toys, pet food ingredients and other products killed and sickened people and animals in North and South America.
The chemical in the dangerous pet food was the same as in the milk scandal - melamine.
At the time, the government promised to overhaul inspection procedures and crack down on companies that took shortcuts.
The crisis has included almost all of China's biggest dairy companies. Their products have been pulled from stores around the country, and in other places such as the autonomous Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macau.
So far, the contamination of melamine in Chinese dairy products had been found not only in baby milk, but also in other types of dairy products such as yogurt and candy.
Lily said that there was only one brand of dairy milk products from China circulating legally in Indonesia -- Guozhen -- and that its products were for adult consumption.
However, Lily said, the Indonesian health ministry had been since Sept. 18 conducting field monitoring on possible illegal distribution of all kinds of dairy products from China. "We have notified regional BPOM branches to conduct monitoring."
Such similar contamination in milk, the Central Jakarta District Court last month ever ordered two government bodies and another organization to announce the brand of baby formula milk contaminated with the Enterobacter Sakazaki bacteria.
The court granted the request of David M. L. Tobing, who demanded that the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB), Foods and Drugs Monitoring Agency (BPOM) and the Health Ministry reveal the contaminated formula milk brand.
The research, carried out from April to June 2006, revealed 22 percent of baby formula samples tested were contaminated by the bacteria, which could cause serious illness, even death, in infants. However, Minister Fadilah could not follow the court order because her ministry did not have data on the formula brands.
