PRESS RELEASE
September 28, 2008
Office of Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri
Ref. Public Information Office
Telefax 3244644

With the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD)’s modified list of milk and milk-based products, Caloocan City Mayor Enrico “Recom” Echiverri again alerted the sanitary and market inspectors to ensure that none of these food items will be sold in the city.

According to Echiverri, even though the BFAD will still conduct further tests to those 52 milk products in the list, traders and businessmen have voluntarily pulled out the included food items from their shelves.

“It would be best to ensure the public’s protection from some unscrupulous traders in anticipation of the laboratory tests being conducted by the BFAD for possible melamine contamination,” the mayor said.

Moreover, Echiverri reminded the residents to avoid altogether unmarked milk and those manufactured from China most especially products made by Mengniu (Mengniu Dairy Co) and Yili (Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group) that were tested to contain melamine.

“Aside from ensuring that there are no unmarked milk and those labeled ‘Made from China’ or ‘People’s Republic of China or PROC’ being sold in our markets, we are also conducting information campaigns for the consumers' welfare,” Echiverri added.

The city’s Market Division under the supervision of City Administrator Russel Ramirez, meanwhile, conducted routine inspections to guarantee that there were no milk formulas and breast milk substitutes from China being sold in the markets.

Also, Echiverri earlier alerted the Caloocan Health Department (CHD) to check on hospitals and health centers for cases of kidney-related illnesses among babies which could have resulted from the consumption of contaminated milk from China.

The city government, through the CHD, has also been continuously promoting breast milk as the best food for babies up to two years old.

According to BFAD, melamine is sometimes added to food products by unscrupulous manufacturers in order to increase the apparent protein content of milk.

Although melanine is a compound used for plastic and herbicide manufacture, by itself is nontoxic in low doses.

However, when combined with cyanuric acid, it can trigger the formation of fatal kidney stones.