DCD & milk
From port to market shelf and then on to the consumer’s plate or cup, here’s the official chain down which a food item makes its way. When the food item arrives at the port, it comes under the Customs.
From port to consumer
The Imported Inspection Unit which comes under the Food Control Unit of the Health Ministry and seeks advice and guidance from the FAC, will check the documents that verify the country of origin which is from the Chamber of Commerce of that particular country. Samples from the food item would then be taken for three types of checks -- Microbiological tests which are undertaken by the Medical Research Institute; chemical checks by the Government Analyst’s Depart- ment and checks by an approved analyst at the National Institute of Health Sciences. Radiation checks would be carried out by the AEA. The whole procedure of testing samples takes about two weeks.
The NZ Government has since January 2013 kept health services with the Sri Lankan Health Ministry informed of all developments relating to the DCD issue, the NZ Ministry for Primary Industries said in a detailed response to questions emailed to it by the Sunday Times.
“They (Health Ministry authorities) are Sri Lanka's experts in food safety and the usual channel for these kinds of notifications,” the NZ ministry said, adding that in early May 2013, two MPI officials visited Sri Lanka for discussions about a wide range of issues, including DCD and met with Sri Lankan officials from the Ministry of Health, the Sri Lankan Standards Institute, the Consumer Affairs Authority and the Atomic Energy Authority.
Excerpts of the MPI response:
When was DCD first discovered in New Zealand’s dairy products? What were these dairy products?
- New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) was first told about DCD in some New Zealand dairy products in late September 2012. It has been discovered in dairy products including milk powder and butter. More than 2,000 tests have been done on New Zealand milk since it was first discovered. Even the highest levels of DCD detected were many times below unsafe levels. There has been no DCD detected in milk from New Zealand farms since mid-November 2012 We quickly established that there was no food safety risk. We then worked with the New Zealand dairy and fertiliser industries to decide how to deal with any trade issues. The result was that the companies which produced DCD fertiliser decided to voluntarily withdraw it from the market. Because there is no internationally agreed minimum limit for DCD we advised our trading partners, including Sri Lanka We provided our trading partners with scientific information and test results so that they could make their own decision about the safety of New Zealand dairy products. The New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi wrote to the SL Ministry of Health about the issue early in 2013. MPI has directly provided the Sri Lankan Ministry of Health and Sri Lankan Standards Institute with several updates since then. New Zealand has been discussing the issue of radioactivity testing with Sri Lankan authorities for several years. Sri Lanka’s Atomic Energy Authority currently tests every consignment of imported dairy powder for radioactivity. This testing AEA’s has never detected a radioactivity problem with New Zealand dairy products, despite testing all consignments for over a decade. New Zealand also monitors radioactivity in its own dairy products and has provided Sri Lanka authorities with annual reports from this monitoring - In light of the negligible radioactivity risk posed by New Zealand dairy products and the results of AEA’s own testing, New Zealand has been seeking a reduction in the frequency of testing, or a removal of testing.