(Update 2) DOH finds melamine in Jolly Cow milk; 21 products cleared

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/08/2008 12:49 PM

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Health Secretary Francisco Duque announced Wednesday that Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk (1 liter), a product of the People's Republic of China, had tested positive for melamine.

In a press conference, Duque said 21 other dairy products had tested negative for melamine.

Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk (1 liter) is distributed locally by Flying Ace Corp..

Duque said this product should already have been withdrawn from the market.

In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) Wednesday, Mike Villanueva, marketing manager of Flying Ace Corp., said they "fully support" the Bureau of Food and Drug's (BFAD) findings.

BFAD officials said Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk had a melamine level of 4 parts per million. Food products should not contain any amount of melamine since it is not allowed as a food additive, they said.

Negative list

The 21 dairy products cleared by the DOH of melamine contamination are:

1. Anmum Materna Milk Powder Chocolate Flavor (400g)
2. Bear Brand Choco (300g)
3. Bear Brand Sterilized Milk (200ml)
4. Cadbury Choclairs
5. Carnation Calcium Plus Non-fat Milk Powder
6. Klim Instant Full Cream Milk Powder
7. Milk Chocolate Bar (40g)
8. Monmilk Breakfast Milk Walnut Milk Beverage
9. Monmilk Hi-calcium Low fat milk (1L)
10. Monmilk Deluxe Pure Milk
11. Nestle Chocolate Flavor Ice cream
12. Nestle Dairy Farm Pure Milk
13. Nestle Fresh Milk (1L)
14. Nestle Kitkat
15. Nestle Milk chocolate (40g)
16. Nestle Pops Ice cream
17. Nestle Vanilla Flavor Ice cream
18. Nestogen 1 DHA
19. Nesvita Cereal Milk Drink
20. Blue Tree Express Milk Drink or Green Apple Flavor (500ml)
21. Prime Roast Instant Nutritious Cereal (28g)

Not many sold?

Villanueva said Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk is a new product that has been in the market for around six months, and "not a great deal" have been sold.

Flying Ace Corp. had already volunteered to withdraw the product last month and will ship back these items to China, he said.

Villanueva said only one Jolly Cow product has so far tested positive for melamine.

He also downplayed the health risks of drinking Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk, saying "it's not a source of great concern."

Villanueva said the "tolerable daily intake of melamine is 0.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight." Thus, an adult who weighs 60 kilograms will not get sick by drinking Jolly Cow Slender High Calcium Low Fat Milk laced with 4 parts per million of melamine, he added.

Yili and Mengniu

Last week, two Chinese milk products, Greenfood Yili Fresh Milk and Mengniu Drinks, tested positive for melamine. But 28 milk products were cleared by the Bureau of Food and Drugs for melamine contamination.

The list of milk and milk Products found negative of melamine as of 03 October 2008 include:

Anchor Lite Milk, Anlene High Calcium Low Fat Milk, Bear Brand Instant, Chichok Milk Chocolate, Farmland Skim Milk, Jinwei Drinks, Jolly Cow Pure Fresh Milk, Kiddie Soya, Milk Egg Delight, Lactogen 1 DHA Infant Formula, M&M Peanut Chocolate Candies, Milk boy, Nestogen 2 DHA Follow-up Formula, Nestogen 3 DHA Follow-Up Formula, Nido 3+ Prebio with DHA, Nido Full Cream Milk Powder, Nido Junior, No- Sugar Chocolate of Isomaltooligosaccharide, Nutri-Express Milk Drink, PURA UHT Fresh Milk, Snickers Fresh Roasted in Caramel & Soft Nougatin Thick Milk Chocolate, Vitasoy Soya Bean Milk, Wahaha Orange, Want-Want Milk Drink (Red Can), Windmil Skim Milk Powder, Yinlu Milk Peanut, Yogee. Yoghurt Flavor Milk Drink. -- with a report from SOL ARAGONES, ABS-CBN News

as of 10/08/2008 12:49 PM