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Melamine-contaminated dairy products seized in East Java
Mon, 09/29/2008 10:52 AM | East Java
Food and beverage supervisory authorities seized this week a large number of dairy-based products alleged to contain poisonous ingredient melamine from several big shopping centers in the province.
From shopping centers Carrefour BG Junction and Pasar Atum, a small supervisory team confiscated 14 boxes of Oreo Cookies and 53 boxes of Oreo Stick Wafers in response to reports that such products made in China contain toxic ingredient melamine, which is alleged to have caused the death of a child in China.
Supervising team leader Siti Amanah questioned Carrefour's compliance with the government's ban on the products, citing that its management had been aware of the regulation.
"We have to seize the dairy-based products to prevent them from being traded to consumers".
Saiba, an attendant at a milk shop in Pasar Atum, said the shop owner supplied the banned products from a distributor in the city.
"We are told the products are from Malaysia and that they are safe to consume," she said.
Saiba said she did not take note of the products' producers and brands when she purchased the items two months ago.
Siti said she was suspicious the banned products were illegal imports as they had not been stamped with a registration number by the Indonesian Food and Beverage Supervisory Agency (BPOM).
The team also found unregistered China-made milky mints at the modern shopping center.
The head of the certification and investigation section at the local food and beverage supervising agency, Harlina Samadi, said the agency had identified 24 dairy-based products containing melamine in the province "and all supermarkets and department stores in the province will be raided to avoid toxicity cases."
In Jember, Antara reported that a team of Commission B at the regency legislative council found two China-made dairy products that allegedly contain melamine in a self-service department store in Kebonsari.
Rendra William, a member of the team, said the finding of the two toxic products, M&Ms and Snicker mints, was evidence that local authorities were not thorough in carrying out raids in the regency.
He called on the local health and tourism office to withdraw immediately the two products from the local market.
BPOM chief Husniah Rubiana Thamrin has threatened to impose a Rp 2 billion maximum fine and a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment on shops that defy the ban.
"All the seized products will be examined at our laboratory before a permanent ban is issued," she said in Jakarta on Wednesday.
She said the seized products would be destroyed if proven poisonous.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Retailers Association (Aprindo) expressed its skepticism over the raids, citing that only 40 percent of retailers in the province were grouped under the association.
"We have been asked to pull out all the banned dairy products from the market but the call and the raid will likely be less effective because only 7,500 outlets and shops in the province have joined Aprindo," secretary general of Aprindo's local chapter Rudy Sumampouw said. --JP/Ridwan Max Sijabat
