BSTI moves to test all registered brands

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) yesterday collected samples of powder-milk brands available on the market to test for melamine.
The findings will be published in a week, it said.
Meantime, officials in Chittagong seized several cans of Chinese Yashili brand dry milk recently blacklisted by the health directorate.
The BSTI will give priority to testing three milk brands--Yashili 1, Yashili 2 and Sweet Baby 2, produced in China where international media reported three babies died and thousands fell sick in recent weeks after drinking melamine-contaminated baby formulas.
The institution asked the chemistry department at Dhaka University for chemical agents necessary for melamine test in milk as they are not available at their laboratory or on the market.
"The BSTI tests for moisture, acidity, solubility, fat contents and a few others in milk powder, but never thought of testing for melamine," BSTI Director General Azmal Hossain said.
"Now that circumstances require us to test for melamine, we have to look for chemical agents like diethylmine and pyridine," he said.
His office also asked the Dhaka University for experts, he said, adding that they will go to different laboratories and repeat the tests several times for accuracy.
"We're not sure of getting all the necessary chemical agents at the Dhaka University," Dr Ashish Ratan Sen, chief scientist and deputy director at the food and bacteriology wing of the BSTI, said.
He said that the BSTI will bring in chemical agents from abroad if they are not available at Dhaka University.
Azmal said they suspect that Yashili 1, Yashili 2 and Sweet Baby 2 milk powders may be contaminated with melamine.
"The government has also published advertisements in different newspapers warning people not to buy these Chinese milk products," he said.
He said the BSTI urged traders not to sell the brands.
Meantime in Chittagong, a BSTI team seized 32 cans of milk formula produced by China's Guangdong Yashili Group Company, our Chittagong correspondent reported.
Officials said one All Way Trading Company in Dhaka has been importing the product since February 2007.