Independent lab confirms eight products contaminated with melamine
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/02/2008 7:16 PM
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An independent testing center has found out that eight food products, including a popular brand of processed meat and an iced drink sold by a popular coffee shop, have tested positive for melamine contamination.
ABS-CBN News on Thursday obtained exclusively the test results from the independent laboratory Progressive Laboratories (Qualibet Testing Center) in Quezon City, which tested 14 China-made products for possible melamine contamination.
Out of 14 products tested, eight were positive for melamine.
The testing center has no authority to release the brand names of the products tainted with melamine. It, however, said that these include two brands of milk candies, a brand of chocolate, a brand of milk powder for pregnant women and a brand of repacked coffee creamer used in restaurants.
Also included in the list are two brands of processed meats -- one for a luncheon meat and another for corned beef.
All of the products tested came from China.
The laboratory said the results will be sent to the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) on Friday.
"Lately yung consumer products, yung commodities, tumaas yung presyo. Then China wanted to subsititute protein, so they used melamine," Progressive Laboratories owner Pinky Tobiano said.
ABS-CBN News asked the laboratory to test the two meat products again. The results of the second test were similar to the first.
"Meron ngang melamine ang isang Chinese meat product. Medyo may kataasan... this proves na ang canned products also have melamine contamination... some of them, not all," Tobiano said while showing the test results to ABS-CBN News.
Tobiano said the meats used in making the canned products possibly came from livestock that were given melamine-tainted feeds.
Recently, samples of whey powder and skimmed milk replacer, which are mixed into livestock feed, also tested positive for melamine after these were seized from a supplier.
A brand of iced coffee shake from a popular coffee chain also tested positive from melamine, based on more than a hundred tests by the laboratory.
"Kasi ang mga coffee shakes, pre-mixes na yan. So when they arrive in the Philippines hindi natin isa-isang tinitimpla iyan. And the milk that they source is from China. Though it may be repacked in the United States or in New Zealand, the raw materials are not from them," she added.
The BFAD said it will not yet announce the names of the melamine-contaminated products tested by Progressive Laboratories, since the government did not commission the private laboratory. With a report from Julius Babao, ABS-CBN News
