Health Ministry searching for officer who leaked report on porcine DNA
KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry is on the search for the officer who leaked the preliminary report on the testing of chocolates that purportedly contained porcine DNA.
Deputy Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahaya said investigations were under way and could take several weeks to complete.
“The unsanctioned results came out on social media before we could verify them again. Normally, if we find something we will verify and re-test it. In this case, the initial results came out first without being double-checked. The person jumped the gun,” he said after opening the Association of Private Hospitals of Malaysia (APHM) 22nd international health conference yesterday.
Action, he said, would be taken against those who failed to abide by the rules and standard operating procedures.
The ministry, he said, conducted the initial testing in February on market samples and the news leaked out in May.
“The re-testing should have been done within a week. It should not have taken this long,” said Dr Hilmi, who discounted elements of sabotage.
The ministry in an official statement said previously that traces of porcine DNA were found in samples of Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut (batch number: 200813M01H I2; expiry on Nov 13, 2014) and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond (batch number: 221013N01R I1; expiry on Jan 15, 2015).
Minister in the Prime Ministers Department Datuk Seri Dr Jamil Khir Baharom said on Monday that they had tested the two samples of chocolates and deemed it halal as no porcine DNA were found.
Dr Jamil said the 11 samples were brought in straight from the factory and reportedly said that samples tested by the ministry could have been contaminated as they did not come straight from the factory.
Dr Hilmi acknowledged that contamination could have occurred and said halalmatters would be handled by Jakim from now on and the ministry would no longer make such announcements.
Cadbury Malaysia reaffirmed in a press statement yesterday that the chocolates made and sold by the company in Malaysia are halal.
Mondelez Malaysia managing director Sunil Sethi said Cadbury was happy to confirm what it believed all along and that nothing was more important than customers’ trust.
“We will now focus on spreading joy which is at the heart of everything we do at Cadbury.
“We are grateful to the relevant authorities for clearing up the air and ensuring that future abnormalities in their test results will be verified internally before making them public,” said Sunil and added that all Cadbury products were manufactured and sold according to Malaysian Islamic Development Department guidelines and it understood the importance of ensuring that the cultural and religious interests of all Malaysians were met.
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