Sub Committee to decide on food standards

Nadira GUNATILLEKE

COLOMBO: The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has appointed a Sub Committee to decide on the standards for melamine contents in food. The Committee will declare the standards soon.

The Ministry has taken all possible precautions to protect the public from consuming food contaminated with melamine, Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry sources said.

Sources said that according to proposed standards which have not been confirmed yet by the relevant authorities, all infant milk powder should be free of melamine and it should be zero per million parts. Other food items should contain less than 2.5 per cent of melamine per million parts.

These standards are yet to be confirmed by the relevant authorities according to the WHO standards.

The Ministry has already released a list of 60 food items that contain melamine and such food items have already been removed from markets.

The Ministry examines all food items reaching the port and issues a special certificate and without this certificate no food container will be released by the Customs. If the Ministry finds any food item that does not meet the required standards, such items will not be released from the harbor, the sources said.

No private company or any other party can claim that the food is free of melamine without all the reports obtained from relevant assigned laboratories located in different countries.

But at the moment some private companies tell the public that their food is free of melamine after obtaining a single report issued by one laboratory. Such announcements are not valid at all and they should make such announcements only after obtaining all relevant reports from all assigned laboratories located in different countries.

The public should rely only on the announcements made by the Ministry. The Ministry makes such announcements to the public on food only after obtaining reports from all assigned laboratories located in different countries, sources added.