[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Government Analyst –Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) has issued an alert to the general public against the sale and purchase of “misleading/deceptive” brands of Evaporated Milk and Evaporated Filled Milk that are being sold on the local market.
The members of the Nationals Food Safety and Control Committee from the all regions in Guyana were briefed on this issue and were advised to take the necessary action against the deceptive products.
The department is informing all Importers and Distributors to recall deceptively labelled milk and to surrender same to the Department for destruction.
Evaporated Milk is a milk, or milk product which is constituted from animal source from which 60% of water has been evaporated, and contains not less than 25 % of milk solids and 7.5 % milk fat , and may carry a pictorial representation of a cow, while Evaporated Filled Milk is a prepared blend of skim milk, vegetable oil, stabilizers and vitamins.
In a press release the department stated “the label on the Evaporated Filled Milk cannot depict a pictorial representation of a Cow and must carry a disclaimer “Not suitable for Children under 2 years”. Such a declaimer is necessary because the digestive system of children is not sufficiently developed to process its content and this amount to a very serious public health issue.”
According to the statement: “The Department has recently seized and removed from premises nine hundred and nine (909) cans of evaporated filled milk with deceptive labels, while sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty six (16,326) cans were seized and left on premises. In some cases, the content of milk fat declared on the label was only three 3 %, with no disclaimer and a pictorial representation of a cow. In addition, a (1×20) foot container of Global brand Evaporated Filled Milk was recently Refused Entry at the John Fernandes Limited Terminal Wharf because the labels were deceptive.”
Some of the brands seized include:
- Promex Milko Evaporated Filled Milk
- Tinny Evaporated Filled Milk
- Rosa Evaporated Filled Milk
- I.V Evaporated Filled Milk
- Grace Filled Evaporated Milk
- Big J Evaporated Filled Milk
- Red and White Evaporated Milk