3 test results to be placed to govt today
People queue up with bottles at a dairy farm at Chankharpul in the capital to buy fresh milk yesterday. Ban on sales of major powdered milk brands has left people with few choices but to depend on fresh milk.Photo: STAR
The experts' committee formed to supervise tests of eight brands of powdered milk yesterday received test results of three laboratories from home and abroad and will submit its report along with recommendations to the government today.
"We're examining the test results. The report is not final yet. We'll complete it by today and submit it to the government tomorrow," Mohammad Ali Patwary, chief of the experts' committee, told newspersons during an interval of the committee meeting at the commerce ministry at around 7:30pm.
The experts, however, expressed disagreement over the recommendations at the meeting that began at 3:00pm and was on when this report was filed at 9:30pm, said insiders without giving details.
"The experts are now fighting," said a committee member when he came out of the meeting at around 8:00pm.
The committee was formed on October 19 during a meeting at the commerce ministry following confusion over test results of the powdered milk.
Tests by the chemistry department of Dhaka University found melamine in Dano, Red Cow, Nido fortified instant, Diploma, Anlene, Yashili 1, Yashili 2 and Sweet Baby 2.
But tests by BSTI and private laboratory Plasma Plus found melamine only in Yashili 1 that created confusion. The government then decided to test all the brands again at home and abroad.
The October 19 meeting at the commerce ministry decided to re-test all the eight brands at the laboratories of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC), Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) and at a laboratory in Thailand.
The results from BCSIR and BAEC were received last Thursday, but the result of a laboratory in Bangkok came only yesterday.
The members of the committee are BSTI Director General Azmal Hossain, Deputy Director Dr Ashish Ratan Sen, BAEC scientific officers Dr Didarul Alam Chowdhury and Dr SM Salehuddin, BCSIR scientific officers Matiur Rahim, Dr Nasim Sultana and Dr Umme Ara, child specialist at national nutrition institute Dr Mukim Ali Biswas, two chemistry department teachers from Dhaka University, and Ziaul Abedin of Plasma Plus.
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