Health Ministry food screening nightmare

An opposition party (Sabah DAP) alleged that the Health Ministry never bothered to check the particular chemical content in the food coming into the country until the melamine issue exploded in China.

In fact, Malaysian are doubtful if the Health Ministry has an effective food screening measures. Most of the times, the ministry will rely on information from their counters in Singapore, Hong Kong and Philippines. They are always 10 steps behind.

Personally, I am disappointed with the Health Ministry for allowing a 1 parts per million (ppm) melamine even in baby food ! How much is 1ppm ? Negligible ? Then why not just make is ZERO (0) ppm. No melamine. Banned melamine in food.

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From Daily Express News

DAP ticks off Ministry over food screening

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah DAP has taken the Health Ministry to task for "failing to come up with effective food screening measures."

MP Dr Hiew King Cheu said the Ministry had all along knew that it was unable to cope with the thousands of food coming into the country but "never bothered to boost its capability."

"In the past, the Ministry never bothered to check the particular chemical content in the food coming into the country until the melamine issue exploded in China," he said here, Saturday.

Now, the Ministry announced that its laboratory is able to screen only up to four products daily but it should be the responsibility of the Ministry to seek outside help, including privatising the food screening process, if it could not cope.

"At the present pace, how long will it take to screen the content of thousands of food coming into the country, 10 years? By the time people are already consuming poison," he said.

"Even I take the Khong Guan biscuits," he said, referring to the locally produced biscuits, some of it were recently found to contain a high amount of melamine.

At the same time, he said the Ministry should also consider requiring food producers to list out the contents and acquire accreditation certificates to state if it is free from harmful chemical.