FDA: 10 Chinese dairies on Thai market proved safe

Sample tests have proved all the 10 brands of dairy products imported from China onto Thai market are safe from melamine, Thai Food and Drug Administration Deputy Secretary-General Manit Arunakul told Xinhua here on Monday.

The FDA has carried laboratory tests on samples of the 10 dairy products imported from China on Thai market and found them all have met related safety standards set by the Thai FDA.

The Thai FDA on Sept. 24 imposed a temporary ban on the sale and import of 10 Chinese dairy products, including candies and biscuits, after some milk powder products in China were found tainted with melamine, which has caused illnesses or deaths of infants in China.

The food watch-dog will soon issue certifications for local merchants, retailers or whole-sellers, whose imported commodities have passed the exams, to give assurance to the safety and to get them back onto the shelves as soon as possible.

Interviewed by Xinhua after a press conference to announce the test results on Monday, Manit noted that the issue of Chinese food products' security were closely followed in foreign countries. In Thailand, there was also hot discussions earlier about the issue when some tainted food products were found on Thai market.

Thailand will continue to closely follow new developments about the issue and will review the import and sale ban accordingly.

But it should be taken note that China is a huge production base for many kinds of products exported to all over the world, and Thailand has been one of the big importers of Chinese food products, said Manit. Many of the Chinese products are high quality and cheap, he said.

He thus advised Thai consumers and Thai media to act with caution when choosing any food products or reporting news about food safety concerns, but at the same time not to panic at any news about the issue, or even to boycott all products from any particular country because of reported problems found in a certain kind of product.

Source: Xinhua