By Eunice Hilda A. Mensah
Accra, Jan. 12, GNA – Coagulated Ideal and Carnation brands of evaporated milk produced by Nestle Ghana Limited for the Ghanaian markets are “not contaminated and dangerous to consumers,” the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) says.
Mr Joseph Yaw Bennie, the acting Director of Legal and Corporate Affairs at the FDA, who stated this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, explained that research conducted by the Authority at Nestle’s manufacturing facility in Tema and analysis of the coagulated product proved that it was not contaminated.
This followed complaints by some consumers of the products on the market.
The FDA said following the complaints it “thoroughly” investigated the product and helped to identify the batches that were affected and directed the Company to recall all the affected products on the market.
“As far as the FDA is concerned, our focus is to ensure that a product’s safety can be guaranteed, and consumers’ safety will not be injured in any way. So, when we started the investigation, our first step was to check the safety of the product and by our physical checks at the facility, we confirmed through laboratory analysis that the product was not contaminated by any microbial agents.
“The seal was okay, we opened and checked the internal lining, and it was intact, and there was no leaching of dangerous chemicals of the internal lining into the product. We can confirm that it is a safe product. Just that milk is supposed to flow when you are pouring but this time, it is not, due to the inability of the skimmed milk powder used for its production to withstand heat,” he explained.
Mr Bennie said as of January 9, 2022, a total of 57,938 cans of the products had been retrieved by Nestle nationwide and that the FDA was expecting feedback from Nestle in the week over the additional products retrieved among other related matters.
The FDA, he said, had not relented on its regulatory mandate and had as part of its product approval process, developed a “Supply Quality Programme” for every manufacturer to direct and regulate their operations before they started producing.
For Ideal milk, batch numbers identified with the coagulation are: ‘12651489’, ‘12951489’, ‘12961489’, ‘13001489’, ‘13031489’, ‘13131489’, ‘13161489’, ‘13171489’, and ‘13351489’.
The batches identified for the Carnation milk also manufactured with the affected raw material are: ‘12901489’, ‘12911489’, ‘12931489’, ‘12941489’, ‘12951489’, ‘12601489’, ‘12611489’, ‘12651489’, 13061489’, ‘13071489’, 13081489’, ‘13091489’, and ‘13101489’.
Mr Kofi Kapito, the Chief Executive, the Consumer Protection Agency, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, commended the FDA for the efforts to protect the consumer.
“I support what the FDA is doing. Fortunately, nobody was harmed. They have identified the batches and asked for a recall,” he stated.
He asked Nestle to compensate consumers and wholesalers for the inconvenience.
GNA
