In a sharp contrast to the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority's (BFSA) test that found traces of lead in 11 pasteurised milk brands approved by Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI), now one of the manufacturers has claimed there is no lead in its products.
The test run by Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) has found no lead in the pasteurised milk of Aarong brand, claims the manufacturing company BRAC Dairy and Food Enterprises.
"The analysis report of BCSIR has found no presence of lead in Aarong brand milk," its Director Mohammad Anisur Rahman said in a statement sent to the media on Tuesday (Jul 16).
It says on May 26 Aarong Dairy provided the BCSIR with a sample of 500ml packet of pasteurised milk and the scientific research regulatory body filed its analysis report on Jul 1.
"The report found no trace of lead in Aarong Dairy's sample," said Rahman adding they provided the report copies to the media in public interest.
Earlier in the day, the BFSA unveiled its findings in front of a High Court bench.
The 11 brands include: Milk Vita, Dairy Fresh, Igloo, Farm Fresh, Aftab Milk, Ultra Milk, Aarong Dairy, Pran Milk, Ayran, Pura, and Safe.
The food safety authority also found traces of cadmium, another hazardous substance for the human body, in a few samples among the 50 samples of raw milk they tested.
All the samples were tested in laboratories under Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Plasma Plus, WAFFEN Research, Atomic Energy Commission, and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), as per BSTI testing standards.
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