SC lifts ban on Milk Vita

The Apex Court of Bangladesh on Monday exempted Milk Vita, one of the 14 leading milk companies the high court ordered to stop production, distribution and selling of their pasteurized milk, from the ban

The Chamber Judge of Appellate Division Md Nuruzzaman lifted the ban on Milk Vita for eight weeks after the authorities of the state-run company filed petition seeking stay on the High Court order.

The High Court on Sunday ordered 14 registered companies — including Milk Vita, Pran and Aarong — to stop production, distribution and selling of their pasteurized milk across Bangladesh for five weeks.

The court issued the ban as four separate lab reports on pasteurized milk of the 14 companies in the market showed presence of harmful substances for human body.

On July 23, the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) submitted reports of three laboratories — Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), and the Feed and Food Safety Laboratory of the Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute.

On July 14, the same bench had directed the BSTI to test pasteurized milk at the four aforementioned laboratories and submit their reports separately on July 23.

The labs were ordered to test for total bacterial count, coliform, staphylococcus-sp, acidity, formalin, detergent, and antibiotics in the milk samples.

The High Court on July 14 also wanted to know what steps the BSTI had taken following the two reports prepared by a group of Dhaka University researchers.

In those reports, the researchers led by former director of Biomedical Research Centre Prof ABM Faroque said they found antibiotics, detergent, coliform bacteria, and other hazardous matter in pasteurized milk products sold in the market.

In a press release issued on July 13, the Biomedical Research Centre said they had found antibiotics in dairy products in their latest research. The centre had published its first report on pasteurized milk on June 25.

On May 17, 2018, several media outlets published articles based on the iccdr,b report that stated 75% of pasteurized milk was not safe. The report came to the High Court's attention and the court ordered a writ to be filed on the issue.

The 14 companies are Aftab Milk and Milk Producer Ltd (Aftab), Akij Food and Bev-erage Ltd (Farm Fresh Milk), American Dairy Limited (MOO), Bangladesh Milk Pro-ducers’ Cooperative Limited (Milk Vita), Baro Awlia Dairy Milk and Foods Ltd (Dairy Fresh), BRAC Dairy and Food Project (Aarong Dairy), Danish Dairy Farm Ltd (Ay-ran) Ichhamoti Dairy and Food Products (PURA), Igloo Dairy Limited (Igloo), Pran Dairy Ltd (Pran Milk), Uttar Bango Dairy (Ultra), Purbo Bangla Dairy Food Industries (Arwa) and Tania Dairy and Food Products (Safe).

Kamruzzaman