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Food and Drug Analyst Dept understaffed

Oct 07, 2008 News

As it is currently, the Food and Drug Analyst Department has only found one product that is contaminated with melamine, the deadly substance found in a dairy product that has killed at least four persons and hospitalized 53,000 persons in China.

The product, ‘Milky Evaporated Milk,’ was found in one of Guyana’s municipal markets, and persons are being urged to desist from using the product.

According to Director of the Food and Drug Analyst Department, Marilyn Collins, three inspectors are currently out in the fields looking in all supermarkets for any dairy product that has been manufactured in China.

However, she explained that the department is facing difficulties in terms of the number of inspectors that it can put in the fields.

Their numbers are very small; the department does not have adequate staff to conduct extensive searches for problematic articles in supermarkets and shops.

The director explained that the municipal markets pose a major challenge for the department, since there are only three inspectors in Georgetown, and these have to physically inspect the products; and now they have to examine all the stalls in each of the municipal markets in the country.

So far, the team has not unearthed any more of the contaminated products in Guyana. The search is not limited only to Georgetown, but is being done countrywide.

Environmental health officers in each of the regions in Guyana are also assisting in the search by conducting inspections in the small shops in their communities that may be selling any milky products which were made in China.

Ms Collins added that the inspectors are vigorously checking all the major supermarkets in Georgetown, such as Nigel’s Supermarket and the Fogarty’s Store, for any product that may have melamine, or which was made in China. Collins is appealing to persons not to use any China-made milky products because of the threat.

Kaieteur News was told that the two importers of the product are unregistered by the Food and Drug Analyst Department and are currently assisting the department in identifying the vendors to whom they sold the contaminated product, so that it can be removed from the market.

So far, intelligence received by the Ministry of Health has found that the “Milky Evaporated Milk’ was imported through Suriname.

The department is calling on all consumers not to purchase or consume this product, and to report information on the sale of this product to the Analyst Food and Drug Department.

Wholesalers and retailers are requested to surrender any milky products containing milk-derived ingredients manufactured in China to the Food and Drug Analyst Department.

Health effects from exposure to melamine vary, depending on the amount and duration of exposure.
Scientific research indicates that effects to the bladder and kidneys, such as bladder and kidney stones and chronic kidney inflammation, can result if exposed to high enough levels of melamine.

Since the revelation of the issue in China, the Ministry of Health, through the Analyst Food and Drug Department, has been carefully monitoring the situation which, according to them, has caused a global uproar and has resulted in several products being recalled by manufacturers and distributors, and also banning of products by several countries.

It was explained that melamine is an artificial chemical used in a variety of industrial applications, including in the production of resins and foams, cleaning products, plastic products, fertilizers and pesticides.

It is not naturally occurring, and it is not allowed in food. However, melamine added to milk has the effect of causing milk to falsely appear to have more protein.

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