ISLAMABAD: Tea whiteners are not milk and are unsafe for human consumption, a parliamentary committee was told on Thursday.

“It has been established that companies manufacturing various brands of tea whiteners and marketing them as milk [when it is not in fact] milk. Standards have been finalised to regulate the quality of tea whiteners which will be enforced after the concerned government departments approve them,” said Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA ) Director General Mohammad Khalid Siddique.

He was briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology which met to follow up on the actions taken with regard to the collection of samples of various brands of milk, cooking oils and bottled water by PSQCA.

Mr Siddique told the committee that the authority had started the process of finalising standards for packaged milk after receiving complaints from the public in general and media reports.

Tea whiteners are being marketed as milk, standards for regulating tea whiteners will soon be enforced, NA body told

“The process of licensing all milk manufacturers is underway and 16 licences have been issuesd so far,” Mr Siddique said.

This surprised most members, especially given that the Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research had in January this year found just six of 16 brands of packaged milk safe for human consumption.

In September last year, samples of ten pasteurised milk brands were tested by the council of which only Prema milk was found fit for human consumption.

“It is a shame that Anhaar Milk, which is owned by the prime minister, was also found unsafe for human consumption,” said the chairman of the committee, MNA Chaudhry Tariq Basheer Cheema.

The milk brands that were found to be unfit for consumption included Nurpur Milk, Anhaar Milk, Adams Milk, Nutrivo Milk, Doce Milk, Gourmet Milk, Achaa Milk and Al-Fajar Milk.

Mr Siddiqui told members of the committee that all milk manufacturers were now conforming to government regulations to maintain the quality of their brands’ milk.

“Licensing were issued after thorough testing of samples collected from factories and markets and after the milk brand was found to be safe for consumption,” he said.

The official said that the regulations require all manufacturers to ensure their products are free from adulterations including formalin, hydrogen peroxide, boric acid and bleaching powder etc.

Regulations also bind manufacturers to ensure that packaged full cream milk is homogenised and contains permitted food additives, nutrition supplements and is free from added preservatives.

“Most milk brands across the world have a shelf-life of between three and six months but PSQCA has told milk manufacturers in Pakistan that their milk should have a shelf life of less than three months,” Mr Siddique told the committee.

Members of the committee agreed that PSQCA should be empowered to the maximum so its officers can ensure that citizens consumed quality food products especially basic items including milk, cooking oil and water.

According to the PSQCA DG, 13 of the 101 brands of banaspati ghee tested between April and June this year were selling substandard products.

Similarly, of 67 samples of cooking oil collected from markets, a dozen were found selling sub-standard oil.

Mr Siddique said notices were served to non-conforming manufacturers of cooking oil, who were asked to restrain from producing low quality products.

“More than a dozen oil and ghee units have been sealed for non-conformance,” Khalid Siddique said.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2017