Saeed Al-Khotani Saudi Gazette RIYADH – Around 530,000 cans of Similac Gain Plus infant milk formula confiscated from the Saudi market will either be destroyed or released for sale depending on laboratory test results, said CEO of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) Prof. Mohammed Almeshal. Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, Almeshal said that almost 96 percent of the brand under cloud has been withdrawn from the market. An information sheet distributed to journalists at the press conference mentioned that only two batches of the powder milk, suspected of being tainted with the botulism-causing bacteria, arrived in the Kingdom. First batch arrived on Sept. 13 this year, carrying 3,606 cans, of which 3,465 appeared to belong to the tainted lot. The second batch arrived three days later on Sept. 16, carrying 1,383 cans, of which 255 appeared to be tainted. Thus the total number of cans in the two batches which arrived in the Kingdom was 4,989, of which 3,720 or 75 percent were feared to be tainted. Almeshal maintained that the suspected batches were still held-up at the port warehouses. “Samples of the confiscated milk powder were sent to top laboratories in the world for analyses,” he said. SFDA Legal Adviser Salih Al-Atwi excluded any possibility of the SFDA suing New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra for the shipment of tainted product to the Kingdom. However, if it is proved by authentic medical reports that someone was affected by the tainted product, then the affected person will have the right to file a lawsuit against the company, he said. Earlier this month, the SFDA announced that its Early Warning Center received a notification from the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) of the World Health Organization that some batches of Similac Gain Plus infant milk formula for children aged 1-3 years produced by Fonterra for Abbott were contaminated by the bacteria Clostridium botulinum as a result of whey protein concentrate in the product. The SFDA mentioned that the notification pointed out that the product was shipped to a number of countries including the Kingdom.
