The problem of the presence of the industrial chemical melamine—which mimics the effect of food proteins in many tests of food quality—has popped up in Saudi Arabia. The country’s Food and Drug Authority says it has identified the chemical in Nestle milk powder. Nestle denies the allegation and the Saudi Ministry of Commerce says that the country imports no milk products from China.
I suspect that what is happening is that some retailers are getting their products outside of regular trade channels, i.e. the gray or black market, importing goods from third countries while disguising their source. That would be nothing new for Saudi merchants, as similar cases—as with Israeli products that are banned in the KSA—have found their way to grocers’ shelves.
SFDA finds melamine in Nestle milk
Fatima Sidiya | Arab NewsJEDDAH: More than two months after the Saudi Food and Drugs Authority (SFDA) called on the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to ensure that no Chinese-manufactured milk products were being sold in the Kingdom, the SFDA issued a consumer alert yesterday on the presence of the industrial chemical melamine in milk powder made by a Nestle plant in China and Apollo Chocolate Wafer Cream snack bars.
And, sure enough, store shelves in Jeddah were stocked with the product that the SFDA named yesterday: Nestle’s Nesvita Pro Bone Protection high calcium milk (specific samples produced in China on different dates in 2007 and 2008) and Apollo Chocolate Cream-Filled Wafer bars, made by Malaysia’s Apollo Food Industries.
“The SFDA found five samples from all the samples tested (contaminated with melamine),” said a statement on the SFDA website.
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December:04:2008 - 14:32
The most significant part of this story to me is at the end where the article points out that the SFDA and the Commerce Ministry both said in September that there are no Chinese milk products on the market. A better and more open media would have jumped on that and demanded that they explain why they made this ridiculously false statement in the first place. (Instead the media portrayed the government as being magnanimously vigilant against Chinese milk — and this was only in September!)
There are so few checks on the Saudi government that it feels free to make patently false statements with impunity. Declaring that there are no Chinese milk products in the Saudi market when clearly there are (as anyone can verify) is a symptom of a system that feels like it can declare anything and not be held accountable to the public.
I mean, seriously, why Jeddawis haven’t marched on the Baladiyyah with pitchforks and torches for such egregious neglects as not having installed a city-wide sewerage system in a city of 2.5 million people IN THE YEAR 2008 is beyond me. It’s complete impunity that makes them feel comfortable making such ridiculous declarations that there is no Chinese milk in the Saudi market in September, and the two months later the same agencies that made the “no Chinese milk here” claim issue warnings about Chinese milk in the Saudi market containing melamine. People here have become so desensitizes to these incongruities that they aren’t even affected by them anymore.
December:04:2008 - 16:06
I don’t think the government is lying here. I think it more a matter of there are no legally imported Chinese milk products in the market.
Yes, it’s possible that somebody ‘authorized’ a shipment without recording it, in return for a bribe. I think it more likely that the products have been smuggled in and are likely counterfeits of the Nestle brand. It’s a lot cheaper to pay off a Customs agent than a Ministry official, after all.
Or, Customs might have just been sloppy… nothing new there. A Customs agent might have just been lazy on the day that the bad products came over the border from the UAE or somewhere else.
There’s a saying that goes something like, ‘First discount stupidity, then look for malice.’ I find that a useful way to look at the world while keeping blood pressure under control.
December:04:2008 - 20:20
I assume that this occurred due to corruption, at least in part.
An enormous irony is that the ulemaa who benefit from all this corruption in the land thereby facilitated the introduction of melamine — which was described in some news accounts as being produced from swine — into children’s diets.