HC seeks pasteurised milk test reports in one week

The High Court on Sunday sought the test reports of pasteurised milk of all companies which are approved by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution(BSTI) within one week after testing the samples of those in four different laboratories.

The four laboratories are International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Institute of Public Health, Food Safety Laboratory under the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute.

The tests of antibiotics, detergent, polyform, formalin and bacteria should be included in the laboratory testing. 

A bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed andJustice MdIqbalKabir passed the order when BSTI lawyerSarkar MR Hasan informed the court that BSTI does not have proper technological support to test antibiotics in pasteurised milk.

The court also directed the representatives of the four laboratories to remain present when BSTI would collect milk samples for the testing.

The HC sought details of the steps taken by the BSTI against the milk companies concerned during the next hearing on July 23 after a new report ontest results on pasteurised milk placed before it.

A new research conducted by Prof ABM Faruque, the former director of Dhaka University's Biomedical Research Centre, found the traces of antibiotics in pasteurised products of Pran, MilK Vita, Igloo, Aarong, and Farm Fresh.

On June 25, researchers announced finding the traces of detergent and antibiotics in samples of pasteurised and unpasteurised milk of Pran, MilK Vita, Igloo, Aarong and Farm Fresh.

All the seven samples of pasteurised milk contained antibiotics used to treat humans, Prof Faruque had said. Detergent was detected in three samples of pasteurised and an unpasteurised one.

“The traces of antibiotics that we found were meant for human use. Antibiotics for humans and animals are totally different. We need to stop the use of antibiotics meant for humans on animals,” Prof Faruque told a press conference at Dhaka University on the same day.