News
Maliban challenges ITI test result, offers one million reward
An Australian milk powder supplier has warned of diplomatic consequences if its product is proved to contain any farm chemical while its Sri Lankan buyer offered a one million rupee reward if anyone could identify such substance. The warning and the offer of a reward come in the wake of the state-run Industrial Technology Institute (ITI) declaring that it had found the harmful substance DCD (dicyandiamide) in a batch of Maliban non-fat milk powder.
The ITI has ruled out the presence of DCD in Maliban full cream milk powder or any of the Maliban brand milk products except from a sample taken from a batch of its non-fat milk powder, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Lakshman Weerasuriya said. He added he suspected some ‘jugglery’ of changing samples before or after laboratory testing.
He told the Sunday Times that no country had found DCD or any other toxic residues in Australian milk powder during the past 100 years and Australian authorities had expressed serious concern on the sudden DCD findings in the non-fat milk powder sold here.
Claiming that Australia had sent an accredited laboratory report confirming that milk powder supplied by it were free of DCD, Mr. Weerasuriya said he believed that the Australian government would take the matter up with the Sri Lankan government at diplomatic level.
The Australian government had also issued a certificate on quality standard of the country’s milk powder along with a certificate from Murray Goulburn Co-operative Company Ltd., the largest dairy industry in Australia, he said. “Murray Goulburn has categorically stated that DCD has never been used by Australian dairy farmers in the production of milk powder in Australia,” he said.
Mr. Weerasuriya challenged any one to prove with documents or any scientific laboratory tests carried out overseas that Australian milk powder was contaminated with DCD or any toxic residues. “If anyone can prove our milk had DCD, I will offer him a Rs. 1 million cash reward within 24 hours,” he said.
“Maliban milk is imported from Murray Goulburn of Australiaa and re-packing is done at our Ratmalana factory in keeping with international standards – ISO-9001 (Quality Management System), ISO-22000 (Food Safety Management System), ISO-14001 (Environmental Management System), as well as all processing steps are accredited with the GMP system and HACCP system,” he said.
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