Stephen Tumusiime
23 September 2008
Kigali — Baby milk products from China that have made thousands of children ill and claimed four babies' lives in China because they contained melamine, a toxic industrial component, have not found their way in the country, the Minister of Health Dr Jean Damascene Ntawukuliryayo has said.
"We are working closely with the Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) to see that the products are not being imported into the country," the Minister assured the nation.
In order to ensure that Rwandans don't fall prey to these baby products which are rumored to be on neighbouring Burundi markets, Ntawukuliryayo said that announcements have been put over television and radios appealing to whoever gets information of such products in the country to report to the authorities as a measure to stop their entrance into the country.
The powdered milk was found contaminated with industrial chemical known as melamine used to make plastics and banned for food use. If ingested, it may lead to the growing of kidney stones.
Jane Nyamvumba working with quality assurance in RBS said that the Chinese Embassy had warned Rwandans against these products.
"We received an e-mail from the Chinese Embassy notifying us of the consequences of the products to infants and we immediately took heed of it," she said.
Nyamvumba says that they are making sure they prevent these products from entering the country.
"We have learnt that in Burundi, these milk products are already on the market. Since Rwanda trades with Burundi, we are putting measures to stop their way into the country," she said.
"We have finished surveillance in Kigali and are heading to the Southern Province where Rwanda borders with Burundi to check if there are any of these products that have sneaked into the country" she explained. Traders are also being sensitized to watch out for these products.
"They are cheap and fetch high profits which may encourage traders to invest in. We are therefore trying to talk to them to desist from dealing in those products," says Nyamvumba.
In order to ascertain whether these products were not on some Rwandan shelves, The New Times visited some of the big supermarkets.
Simba Supermarket's General Manager, Justine Ngarambe said that they do not have Chinese milk in their supermarket.
"We deal with quality and bring to Rwanda quality products. Our milk products are from Belgium and Holland. These are known for their good quality on the world market. We therefore found ourselves in a better position when this question arose," she said.
When asked if other milk product sales have not been affected by this announcement, she said that people buy products they are sure of. So, there is no such drop in customers of related products since milk from China is sub-standard.
"The Rwanda Bureau of Standards always checks the standards of products entering the country and I think they have always allowed in only good products. We do not deal in such products that are sub-standard," say authorities at Nakumatt.
The affected Chinese products are branded Sanlu, the largest dairy firm in China. The country's three biggest dairy producers by market value -- Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co., China Mengniu Dairy Co. and Bright Dairy & Food Co. -- are among companies whose products contain melamine, according to a Pakistani government statement.
At least 19 other Chinese producers have been found to have used melamine. In the meantime, the head of China's quality watchdog has resigned amid the growing scandal over melamine-contaminated milk, the official Xinhua news agency reports.
Li Changjiang stepped down "with the approval of the State Council", China's cabinet, Xinhua said. The contamination has made nearly 53,000 children ill. Four children have died and about 13,000 remain in hospital, 104 of them reportedly in a serious condition.
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