Recently disclosed official concerns over possible health implications of use by Guyanese consumers of the product Grace Filled Evaporated Milk may very well extend to several other brands of milk being imported into Guyana, Stabroek Business has been reliably notified.
Earlier this week this newspaper was given the name of another brand of milk imported by a local distributor located in the Kingston area that was denied entry to the local market by the Government Analyst – Food and Drugs Department (GA-FDD) on the grounds that the labelling conveyed misleading information about the contents of the package.
A day after the media here had reported on the publication of a Grace Kennedy advertisement in which the company recalled its Filled Evaporated Milk in Guyana, after the GA-FDD called for “design changes” to the label “and an indication that filled evaporated milk, which contains vegetable oil or fat, is not suitable for children under two years of age,” Stabroek Business learnt that the distributor for the global brand, with at least one 20-ft container of its stock held up at a city wharf, had been seeking to have the GA-FDD’s distribution cessation order rescinded.
Additionally, Stabroek Business has been informed that the GA-FDD had, earlier this week, been scheduled to investigate whether or not Red and White, another brand of milk being sold in Guyana was in conformity with the labelling requirements under the law.
When Stabroek Business spoke with GA-FDD Director Marlon Cole this newspaper was told that by virtue of the fact that the vast majority of the milk fat had been extracted from the product and replaced with vegetable fat, the placement of a cow on the label coupled with failure to provide the details of the composition of the milk on the label amounted to a deception. Additionally, Cole said, the label should provide information regarding the product being unsafe for young children. The Grace Filled Evaporated Milk was reportedly manufactured in Thailand.
Stabroek Business has learnt that the presence on the market of various brands of “filled” evaporated milk has to do with a profiteering pursuit in which manufacturers extract milk fat and re-direct the product to various other high-end sectors including the butter and chocolate industries while replacing the genuine milk fats with vegetable fats.
Stabroek Business has noted that Grace Kennedy made reference only to the Grace Filled Evaporated Milk “in Guyana” and while Cole declined to comment on the significance of this, a source in the food distribution industry told this newspaper that it was likely that Guyana may have been targeted as a market for the milk because of its “weak customs systems” and the fact that it was felt that the milk might have been able to slip through the grasp of the authorities.
Refund of the product which Grace Kennedy says is being sold in 385g (13 oz) cans will be effected “on return of the cans to the point of purchase,” the advertisement advised.
The GA-FDD has commented from time to time on what it says is the proliferation of fake consumer items, notably food items, being vended in Guyana and the limits of its own capacity to curb the practice. A Customs source told Stabroek Business earlier this week that with “evasion” of duties “and regulations” still prevalent in the Customs system information on food imports that are not in compliance with the law often reach the GA-FDD too late for the agency to take any meaningful action.
