MANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE) The Bureau of Food and Drugs on Friday finally released a partial list of 54 milk and milk-based products from China which it said would be subject to testing, a day after it issued an order temporarily banning such products coming from the Chinese mainland.
The list also included products which the BFAD said were manufactured outside China but possibly had milk ingredients sourced from China.
The list which BFAD issued contained names of famous brands like Nestle chocolate flavor ice cream cone, M&M chocolate and Snickers.
The products on the list would be tested for the presence of the industrial chemical melamine, which was found in milk products in China. Four children have died and about 55,000 others have fallen ill in China after drinking milk tainted with melamine.
Department of Health officials gave conflicting answers when asked if all of the products on the list were banned, at least temporarily.
BFAD policy, planning and advocacy officer in charge Virginia Francia Laboy said: “They are considered banned in compliance with the order issued by Secretary (Francisco) Duque, which banned all infant formula and milk products from China.”
Asked if well-known chocolate and ice cream products were included in the ban, Laboy said: “We don’t want to refer to specific brands.”
Health Undersecretary Alex Padilla, however, said only milk products on the list were banned. Asked about the chocolate and ice cream products, Padilla said: “They are just for testing.”
More will be tested
“This is just a partial list. These are the products for testing,” Laboy told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Some of the products named on the list, including milk products of Anchor and Nestle, as well as M&Ms and Snickers, are already in the BFAD food section laboratory and are being prepared for testing.
Laboy said other products would be tested as inspectors were still bringing in more items from the market.
The DOH has temporarily banned all China-made milk and milk products following the discovery of melamine in milk products from that country.
Wider test
BFAD director Leticia Gutierrez said the ban on specific brands would be lifted as soon as laboratory tests proved they were not contaminated with melamine.
Some brands are not from China, but Gutierrez explained these were being tested because they could have had milk ingredients sourced from China.
Some brands were also made from New Zealand but were imported by a local company which is a sister company of SanLu in China, whose products have been recalled.
Also, tofu, soya, noodles
The BFAD said it planned to test a wider range of food products from China, including tofu products.
“That is part of our regular functions. If anyone will encounter any problems with other China-made food products, just refer them to us and we will test them,” Gutierrez said.
Secretary Duque said there was no reason, for now, for consumers to avoid all China-made food products.
He said other food products from China, except milk and milk products, were deemed safe “unless there is an indication or other findings of toxic chemicals in products outside milk and milk products.”
Trade secretary Peter Favila has asked the BFAD to include in its tests soya and noodle products from China which he found were being sold in stores during an inspection yesterday in the city of Manila.
The food section of the BFAD Laboratory Services Division confirmed to the Inquirer that inspectors had brought in for testing samples of China-made tofu bought from Pasay markets.
“We are prioritizing (testing) milk and milk products in the meantime because we also have operational capacity limitations,” Duque said. “Let us first test for melamine in milk products and eventually we can refer to BFAD other food products (from China).”
Not exposed to tainted milk
The country remains free of contaminated infant formula from China, Duque also said, referring to initial results of his department’s monitoring of children with kidney related illnesses for possible links to contaminated milk.
Duque said that of the four infants diagnosed with kidney problems whom health officials had examined, none were exposed to contaminated milk.
“Three of them were actually breastfed,” Duque said. “So far, our monitoring shows that no case (of kidney problems) is connected with the melamine contamination.”
The other day, laboratory food section supervisor Gloria Tomboc showed samples of chocolates made from China as among the products to be tested.
Factories inspection
Gutierrez also said they would be inspecting factories which manufacture products with milk as one of the ingredients.
“As part of your routine spot inspection, if a product contains milk, we will verify where the milk is sourced. They should not be using milk form China because we have banned them,” Gutierrez said.
The following is the partial list of milk and other milk products collected by BFAD for testing for the presence of Melamine as of Sept. 26, 2008:
1. Anchor Lite Milk
2. Anchor Warm Frootmilk Drink Mango Magic
3. Anchor Wam Frootmilk Orange Chill
4. Anchor Wam Frootmilk Strawberry Spin
5. Anlene Milk
6. Anmum Materna 180g
7. Anmum Materna Chocolate
8. Dutch Lady Pure Milk
9. Farmland Skim Milk
10. Greenfood Yili Pure Milk
11. Jinwei Drink
12. Jollycow Pure Fresh Milk
13. Jollycow Slender Lowfat Milk
14. KLIM Instant Full Cream Milk Powder (1.8 kg)
15. M&M Chocolate brown 40 gm
16. Meiji Hokkaido Azuki (red bean ice cream)
17. Meiji Ujikintoki (red bean and green tea frozen confection)
18. Mengniu Original Drink Milk
19. Mengniu Pure Milk
20. Milk Chocolate Bars/China
21. Milk Chocolate Candies/China
22. Milkboy repacked
23. Monmilk Breakfast Milk Walnut Milk Beverage
24. Monmilk High Calcium Low Fat Milk
25. Monmilk High Calcium Milk
26. Monmilk Milk Deluxe Pure Milk
27. Monmilk Pure Milk
28. Monmilk Suan Suan Ru Sour Milk Beverage (Mango Flavor)
29. Natural Choice Milk Ice Bar
30. Nespray
31. Nestlé Carnation Calcium Plus Non Fat Milk Powder (1.6 kg)
32. Nestlé Chocolate flavor Ice Cream Cone
33. Nestlé Dairy Farm Pure Milk
34. Nestlé Vanilla Flavor Ice Cream Cone
35. Nutri-Express Milk
36. Nutri-Express 15 Nutritional elements (blue, red and orange label and cap)
37. Nutri-Express Milk Green Apple
38. Prime Roast cereals 28g
39. Pura Fresh Milk
40. Snickers brown 59gm
41. Strawberry Sorbet
42. Trappist Dairy Low Fat yogurt drink
43. Vita Fresh Milk
44. Wahaha Orange
45. Wahaha Yellow
46. Want Want MIlk Drink
47. Yili High Calcium 250ml
48. Yill HIgh Calcium Milk 1L
49. Yili High Calcium Low fat milk Beverage
50. Yili Lowfat Milk 1L
51. Yili Milk
52. Yili Puremilk 250ml
53. Yili Puremilk 1L
54. Yinlu Milk Peanut
