Minister: No harmful metals in pasteurized, unpasteurized milk

Published at 03:18 pm July 31st, 2019

Agricultural Minister Dr Abdur Razzak addresses a press briefing at the Secretariat on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 PID

In the samples tested by IPH and BARC, no traces of harmful metals were found

Pasteurized and unpasteurized milk produced by the local companies do not contain traces of lead, chromium, sulfa drug or other harmful substances, Agricultural Minister Dr Abdur Razzak has said.

"Of the 16 samples tested, Milk Vita had the presence of streptomycin 10mcg, and Pran had chloramphenicol 0.06mcg below the tolerance level," the minister said on Wednesday. "All the other milk samples did not have any antibiotic traces.

"The samples were tested at the SGS laboratory, an international-standard lab in Chennai, India," the minister added while addressing a press briefing at the Secretariat.

The tolerance level of streptomycin in every litre of milk is 200mcg, Razzak said.

Presence of antibiotic and detergent were found in several pasteurized milk at a research conducted by Dhaka University. On July 20, Prof ABM Faruque of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacology Department in the university advised several milk companies to improve their milk quality.

Razzak said: "After analyzing the results from that research, it can be said, without any doubt, that the milk produced by local companies does not contain any harmful substances."

He said: "To disperse any doubts among the public, the Institute of Public Health (IPH) and Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) took the initiative to test samples of Milk Vita, Aarong, Farm Fresh, Igloo, RD, Savar Dairy, Pran Milk and unpasteurized milk of a total 16 companies to find if they contained antibiotic or sulfa drugs."

The pasteurized milk samples were collected from Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Farmgate areas. And the unpasteurized milk samples were collected from Savar, the minister said.

Substances that are harmful for the human body were not found in any of the tested samples, Razzak said.

He said current time demands the establishment of internationally accepted accredited laboratories to test the quality of different food products, to remove any doubts or confusion among the public.