RIYADH/MAHAYIL, 19 April — Authorities are investigating consumer complaints about presence of glass powder and phosphate sediments, which are likely to cause kidney and liver damage, in dairy products imported from Australia. The harmful contents were detected in Kraft cheese packets sold in Tanumah governorate in the southern Asir Province.
However, Khalifa Abdul Rahman Al-Gosaibi, agents of Kraft products in Saudi Arabia, told Arab News that the confiscation of some bottles of cheese was the result of an inaccurate judgment on the part of the quality control laboratory in Jizan which found powdered glass in the cheese packets. He pointed out that a laboratory in the Eastern Province declared that the substance found in the cheese was salt sediments, which are by no means injurious to human health.
The explanation came after the Commerce Ministry sent a circular to the branches of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs asking them to enforce a ban on sales of Kraft cheese in 140 gram, 240 gram and 1 kilo packets. The circular said the foreign bodies found in the packets might pose serious health problems to the consumers.
The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has announced the manufacturing dates of the polluted Australian cheese. They were manufactured on May 9 and 15, Aug. 28, Sept. 20 and Oct. 2 and 16. Officials in some regions confiscated all Kraft stocks without checking for the dates, said Bassam Numani, an executive at Al-Gosaibi.
He said the sediments found in the cheese were only natural salt which dissolved at the time of manufacturing process but crystallized later. However, the branches of the Ministry of Municipal and Rural affairs in Jeddah, Riyadh or Eastern Province did not receive any complaints about foreign bodies in Kraft bottles, according to a reliable source.
