Import licenses for Chinese dairy products revoked

Thursday, 25 September 2008 10:11 AM Tinette Panogot

The Department of Health has issued a memorandum order banning the "importation, distribution, sale or order of all infant formula and other milk products coming from China," and revoking or otherwise canceling all existing import licenses for such products, GMANews.tv reports, adding that the DOH will now consider repacked milk products as “contraband”.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita had earlier said that importers can have their licenses revoked for good if proven to bring melamine-contaminated China milk products into the country. He added that they could also face prosecution under the Consumer Act, says GMANews.tv.

Neither the DOH nor the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) has issued an official list of banned products, however. The BFAD hotline (+632-8425606) has already received numerous calls from consumers asking about specific brands to watch out for, the Inquirer relates. BFAD's Virginia Laboy said that they did not want to release any such list yet. “We do not want to penalize only those registered products because we are also concerned with unregistered products,” the Inquirer quotes Laboy as saying.

“Do not buy any milk and milk products that are made from China”, says the BFAD hotline according to the Inquirer.

Meanwhile, the Department of Health is presently investigating whether kidney ailments of hospitalized babies are connected to melamine-contaminated milk products, according to the Manila Times. Health Secretary Francisco Duque III has asked parents to immediately inform the DOH if their babies show kidney problems.

Photo by 2 dogs on flickr; licensed under Creative Commons License BY-NC-ND-2.0.

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