Food & Drug Dept warns of fake evaporated milk on local market

The Government Analyst-Food & Drug Department on Friday warned against the sale and purchasing of what it described as “misleading (deceptive) brands” of Evaporated Creamer, Royal Chef Sweetened Condensed Filled Milk and Lait Concentre Sucre that are being sold on the local market.

According to the Department, evaporated milk is milk or milk product which is constituted from an animal source from which 60 per cent of water has been evaporated, and contains not less than 25 per cent of milk solids and 7.5 per cent milk fat, and may carry a pictorial representation of a cow, while evaporated filled milk is a prepared blend of skim milk, vegetable oil, stabilisers and vitamins.
The Food and Drug Department said that the label on the evaporated filled milk cannot depict a pictorial representation of a cow and must carry a declaimer “not suitable for children under 2 years”.
“Such a declaimer is necessary because the digestive system of children is not sufficiently developed to process its content and this amounts to a very serious public issue,” the statement read.
Some of the brands found on the local market were labelled Lait Concentre Sucre ‘’Condensed Milk’’, Royal Chef “Sweetened Condensed Filled Milk” and Evaporated Creamer.
In their statement, the Department challenged all importers and distributors to recall deceptively labelled milk and to surrender same to the Department for destruction.
“It is a violation for milk products with replaced or modified fat which impacts on the character and composition of such products to be erroneously and frequently labelled as milk. Part II Section (1) Food and Drugs Act Cap. 34:03. The label of filled milk should not bear any graphics that will in any way indicate that the milk is from a dairy source or containing milk fat.”
They further advised consumers to read labels carefully to ensure that the replaced source (type) of fat is declared in the list of ingredients and the product should accordingly be labelled “filled milk”. The label should also carry the statement “not suitable for infants”.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Department revealed that they now have access to a Gas Chromatograph (GC) instrument where all milk imported into Guyana now will be sampled and analysed to determine the fatty acid profile.
The results of which will be used to ensure the label on the milk is not misleading or purported to be of animal fat origin when it may be a mixture of animal and vegetable fat.
Members of the Nationals Food Safety and Control Committee across Guyana were briefed on the issue and were advised to take the necessary action against the deceptive products.