Shops pull milk powder after municipal order
Originally published in Gulf Times on December 8, 2008
A DAY after the municipal authorities called for the “temporary withdrawal” of Nestle’s NesVita pro-Bones low-fat milk powder from the local market, retailers in Qatar have taken the product off their shelves.
The orders were issued after the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority (SFDA) apparently found “high levels” of the dangerous chemical melamine in five products including NesVita pro-Bones low-fat milk powder out of the 52 samples it collected from the Saudi market in October.
The Qatari authorities issued an order on Saturday to Nestle Qatar Trading to pull out the product, as tests are being carried out locally to determine whether the milk powder marketed here is contaminated with melamine or not.
The SFDA on Tuesday put an advisory on its website cautioning the public of consuming the milk powder manufactured in China.
Though the questionable product was found in some of the Doha stores yesterday afternoon, by evening almost all had taken it off their shelves.
Retailers received the pull-out request from Nestle Qatar “first thing in the morning” and many quickly acted on it.
“We received a request at 8.30am and we immediately removed it from our shop. The stock was worth approximately QR5,000,” a spokesman for one of the supermarkets said.
Nestle Qatar Trading general business manager Giuseppe Pasqualini yesterday said: “Since receiving the notice on Saturday afternoon, our team has been working full time in getting the products off the shelves, as per the wishes of the authorities.”
“Today our monitoring teams went to the top 10 retailers, wholesalers, shops outside Doha, and every where else in Qatar to make sure that no one is selling it, just to ensure our full co-operation with the authorities. More teams will be going out today, and during Eid,” Pasqualini added.
The authorities are conducting tests on the samples and the results will be announced after the Eid holidays, according to official sources.
Nestle, meanwhile, has said it has not found any harmful chemical in its products at laboratories in Canada, New Zealand, the European Union, and the World Health Organisation.
The SFDA did not specify what it considered as ‘high levels’.
As Published
