5 milk brands tested safe in German lab

Test reports from a Germany laboratory say popular powdered milk brands Dano, Red Cow, Diploma, Nido and Anlene do not contain melamine exceeding 0.1 parts per million (ppm).
The World Health Organisation (WHO), which collected the test reports from Germany, says powdered milk containing melamine below 0.1ppm is not harmful for child health.
The WHO recommendation attached to the test reports submitted to the High Court (HC) also says melamine residual level in baby formula should not exceed 1ppm.
Reports of latest tests on these brands conducted by Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI), which were also submitted to the HC, revealed almost the same opinion, sources said.
Earlier, Dhaka University's chemistry department detected melamine in eight brands of powdered milk--these five and Yashili-1, Yashili-2 and Sweet Baby-2. The BAEC detected the toxic element in seven except Red Cow while BSTI detected it only in Chinese brand Yashili-1.
The US Food and Drug Administration said on October 3 last year that up to 2.5ppm melamine is safe for adults. It, however, did not set a standard for children.
Today the HC will pass its order on the writ petition for court's directive regarding display and sale of the powdered milk brands allegedly containing harmful melamine.
Hearing both sides, a division bench comprised of justices Mahmud Hossain and Quamrul Islam Siddiqui fixed the date for passing order.
Citing the WHO recommendations, counsels for the companies that produce the eight brands of powdered milk in question yesterday prayed to the court for withdrawal of its order that asked them not to publish advertisements of their brands.
Petitioners' counsel advocate Manzil Murshid, however, said as per the WHO report there is melamine in the powdered milk brands, even if in small quantity, and only experts can say whether this amount of melamine is harmful or not.
He said the Supreme Court (SC) earlier directed the government to carry out laboratory tests on all brands of powdered milk but the government has carried out tests on just five brands.
According to sources, WHO representative to Bangladesh Dr Duangvadee Sungkhobol in a letter to the health ministry dated December 24, 2008, said the test reports for five individual samples indicated that none exceeded melamine contamination level of 0.1ppm and that WHO has recently recommended that melamine residual level in infant formula powder should not exceed 1ppm.
The samples of the powdered milk were tested by Eurofins GmbH laboratory at Hamburg, Germany, under the supervision of WHO.
On November 17 last year, the SC directed the health ministry to send samples of all brands of powdered milk available on the local market to any European country through the WHO for laboratory test and submit the reports to the HC by December 31.
Barrister Amir-ul Islam, barrister Rokonuddin Mahmud, advocate Mahmudul Islam and barrister Tania Amir appeared for the milk powder companies while Deputy Attorney General Razik-Al Jalil represented the state.