Govt shall make 'regular inspections' of foods

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 03/02/2008 9:10 PM

The Drug and Food Monitoring Agency (BPOM) must check bacteria contaminating instant milk and conduct regular inspections of all egistered products, a microbiology professor said here Saturday.

Pratiwi Pujilestari Sudarmono, of the University of Indonesia's School of Medicine, said the bacteria could be enterobacter sakazakii, as announced by Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), or another species of bacteria causing the same symptoms.

By knowing the exact species of contaminant, she said, the source could be traced.

Enterobacter sakazakii, which is a Gram-negative rod-shaped pathogenic bacterium, was indeed associated with infant formula, Pratiwi said.

The bacteria, she said, had a virulence or pathogenic factor which gave it the ability to produce certain types of proteins that could cause fever and diarrhea.

Pratiwi added that this could also cause encephalitis, an acute inflammation of the brain.

Pratiwi said the government should not recklessly announce such findings and cause a nuisance to the community.

There should be clearer information on how far the contamination has spread in instant milks on the market, she said.

The issue of bacteria-contaminated instant milks has come into the spotlight after last week IPB announced findings that 22 percent of instant milks for infants on the market were contaminated with Enterobacter sakazakii.

BPOM held a press conference Friday, saying it was studying 96 samples to verify the findings. It expected to complete the investigations within two weeks.(wda/**)

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