The Government Analyst-Food & Drug Department wishes to advise the general public against the sale and purchasing of misleading (deceptive) brands of Evaporated Creamer, Royal Chef Sweetened Condensed Filled Milk and Lait Concentre’ Sucre that are being sold on the local market.
Evaporated Milk is milk, or milk products that is constituted from animal source of which 60% of water has been evaporated , and contains not less than 25% of milk solids and 7.5% milk fat, and may carry a pictorial representation of a cow,while Evaporated Filled Milk is a prepared blend of skim milk, vegetable oil, stabilizers and vitamins. The label on the Evaporated Filled Milk cannot depict a pictorial representation of a Cow and must carry a disclaimer “Not suitable for Children under 2 years”. Such a disclaimer is necessary because the digestive system of children is not sufficiently developed to process its content and this amount to a very serious public health issue.
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 labeled 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.
Consumers are advised 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 labeled “Filled Milk”. The label should also carry the statement “Not Suitable For Infants”
The Department now has access to a Gas Chromatograph (GC) instrument where all milk imported into Guyana now will be sampled and analyzed to determine the fatty acid profile.
The results will then be use to ensure the label on the milk are not misleading or are purported to be of animal fat origin when it may be a mixture of animal and vegetable fat.
The members of the National Food Safety and Control Committee from the all regions in Guyana were briefed on this issue and were advised to take the necessary action against the deceptive products. The department is hereby informing all Importers and Distributors to recall deceptively labelled milk and to surrender same to the Department for destruction.
Sincerely,