SC clears way for Milk Vita to produce pasteurised milk

The Supreme Court on Monday cleared the way for Milk Vita to produce, distribute and sell pasteurised milk for eight weeks.

Justice Md Nuruzzaman, chamber judge of the apex court, stayed a ban on the state-owned company following a petition by the authorities.

Attorney General Mahbubey Alam appeared for Milk Vita.

Earlier on Sunday, the High Court ordered 14 registered companies, including Milk Vita, to stop producing and selling pasteurised milk for the next five weeks. 

The companies include Milk Vita brand of state-run Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Co-Operative Union Limited, Pran Milk brand of Pran Dairy Limited, Aarong brand of BRAC dairy and food project, Farm Fresh brand of Akij Food & Beverage Limited, Igloo brand of Igloo Dairy Limited, Aftab Milk & Milk Product Limited, Milk Fresh brand of Uttar Banga Dairy, Dairy Fresh brand of Baro Awlia Dairy Milk & Foods Limited, MOO of American Dairy Limited,  Ayran brand of Danish Dairy Limited, Pura brand of Ichamoti Dairy and Food Products, Ultra brand of Shelaidah Dairy, Safe brand of Tania Dairy and Food Products and Arwa brand of Purbo Bangla Dairy Food Industries.

According to the latest test report published by Professor ABM Faroque, the director of Dhaka University Biomedical Research Centre at the time, various types of antibiotics, detergent as well as other forms of unsafe materials had been found in the test samples of pasteurised milk.

On July 14, 2019, the same HC bench asked the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) to get the packaged milk of all the fourteen registered companies tested at four laboratories in the city within a week, the laboratories being Institute of Public Health; International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh; Feed and Food Safety Laboratory under Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute; and Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.

The labs were asked to test for the bacterial count, coliform, staphylococcus-sp, acidity, formalin, detergent, and antibiotics in the milk samples. Afterwards, the HC asked the BSTI to inform what follow-up steps it had taken in response to the two test reports on packaged milk, recently prepared by the Dhaka University researchers.

The BSTI has also been asked (by the HC) how MUCH TIME the institute would need so as to develop the laboratory and parameters to detect antibiotics in milk.

The latest and second test was done on ten samples of pasteurised and non-pasteurised milk.