Detergent in Milk: ‘Submit report or face legal action’

The Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock has threatened to take legal action against a group of researchers of the Dhaka University (DU) if they fail to appear before the ministry with their study report published in the international peer-reviewed journal.

“I asked the researchers whether they have published their research report in the international peer-reviewed journal. If it was published, it must be produced to the ministry by the next seven days. If it is not placed, legal action will be taken,” said Kazi Wasi Uddin, additional secretary of the ministry at a discussion in Dhaka this noon.

Department of Livestock Services (DLS) and the National Dairy Development Forum (NDDF) organised the discussion.

Faculties of the Dairy Science Department of Bangladesh Agricultural University, DLS officials, representatives from local milk processors and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute and Bangladesh Food Safety Authority were present at the programme.

The discussion was organised two weeks after some researchers of Pharmacy Faculty and Biomedical Research Centre of the DU said they found detergent and antibiotics in some samples of milk collected from markets, rising health concern.

Prof ABM Faruque, director of Biomedical Research Centre, unveiled the findings on June 25 after testing seven samples of widely-sold pasteurised milk and three samples of unpasteurised milk.

Following the findings, which were unveiled on June 25, the High Court sought the report from the DU researchers.

Yesterday, DLS refuted the findings of the research while a professor of Dairy Science Department of BAU said some findings were misleading and amount of the sample taken by the DU researchers was too small to give a national picture in this regard.

Wasi Uddin raised a question about the motive of the research and said that the dairy industry is in growing trend and at this moment, such findings would hurt the sector.

Claiming that there is an international protocol of publishing research findings, Wasi Uddin said, “All international protocol must be followed. If any researchers share findings through press conference before the review, we will be forced to go for legal action.”

He also asked the DLS to find out those who are importers of the powder milk and how these are tested before entering into the domestic market.

Wasi said researchers of the DU were invited at the open discussion but they denied.

Director General Hiresh Ranjan Bhowmik said they have questions about the study findings of the DU researchers and said locally produced milk are safe.