As the Bureau of Food and Drugs yesterday issued an order banning the importation and sale of Chinese milk products due to possible melamine contamination, local health officials also started inspecting different grocery stores and supermarkets in Cebu and found suspicious milk product from a downtown store.
Food and drugs regulatory officer Terese Antonette Cuyos said they combed the different grocery stores and supermarkets in Cebu City’s downtown area, specifically at the Carbon area, yesterday and found skimmed milk of suspicious origin.
Cuyos said the milk marked only as “Farm Land” did not have a label as to where it came from. She added they already got a sample of the product for laboratory examination and ordered the store personnel to stop selling it to the public for the meantime.
Last Monday BFAD personnel also swooped down all the leading supermarkets in Cebu City to check if there are China milk products on display. However, Grace Cardona, BFAD regulatory officer, said they found nothing.
So far BFAD has gone to Robinson’s Place, Fooda, Gaisano and selected outlets in Colon and Carbon for monitoring. Cardona said that based on their record, Cebu has no registered importer from China so the people should not be alarmed.
However, she added that there are still possibilities that it will be sold in the local markets because illegal importation still exists.
Another reason is the fact that food distributors are not required to have license to distribute. Distributors based in Manila may distribute their food in Cebu freely without any control from BFAD thus markets here might be invaded.
Cardona advised the public to always read the label, name of manufacturer and what country it came from.
Department of Trade and Industry regional director Asteria Caberte on the other hand said that they are not giving an assurance to the public that there are no Chinese milk products here even if they found nothing in the grocery stores.
Caberte said there might be products that are sold by direct importers and operators of small grocery stores in Cebu. Caberte warned the consuming public to refrain from buying all kinds of Chinese milk products regardless of its manufacturers.
She also advised the public to refrain from buying repacked milk products that are not properly labeled. Caberte instead asked the public to help them monitor by reporting businessmen selling milk products that are not properly labeled.
BFAD specified the banned products as those manufactured by SANLU Group and Guang Sheng Yuan Co. in China. – Fred P. Languido and Jessica Ann Pareja/WAB