M'SIA ACCEPTS SINGAPORE'S MELAMINE TEST RESULTS

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 19 (Bernama) -- The Health Ministry accepts the clearance given by Singaporean laboratories for locally-manufactured biscuits tested for melamine, Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said Tuesday.

He said even test results from Singaporean private labs would be accepted,
as long as they were recognised by the Singaporean government.

"As long as they are conducting the tests for melamine content through the
liquid chromatography double mass (LCMSMS) method and these are recognised by
the Singaporean government, it shouldn't be a problem," he said when contacted
by Bernama Tuesday.

He said even test results from private labs in Malaysia were accepted, as
long as the labs had the facility to measure melamine through the LCMSMS method
and were recognised by the Malaysian government.

The LCMSMS method measures melamine content by parts per million.

On Monday, MCA deputy president Chua Soi Lek suggested accepting the
results of the Singaporean labs for melamine-content testing of locally-made
biscuits as the results could be retrieved faster.

The former health minister said that after the regional melamine scare due
to contaminated milk from China, local biscuit manufacturers were required to
obtain a clearance certificate stating that their products were free from
melamine at any one of the five laboratories assigned by the Health
Ministry.

However, tests conducted by any of the five labs took two weeks, forcing
the biscuit manufacturers to fork out extra money to store their products prior
to obtaining the certificate, compared to two days at the Singaporean
laboratories.