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Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Friday, 28 February 2020 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI) has reconfirmed that Anchor Full Cream Milk Powder meets all Sri Lankan standards of quality and safety for full cream milk powder, following an extensive surveillance audit conducted in New Zealand in order to inspect the breadth of the manufacturing process.
Key findings by the SLSI team concluded that Fonterra New Zealand, the dairy co-operative behind Anchor, has taken every possible measure to ensure that products exported to Sri Lanka meet the requirements of SLS 731, which is the national standard for milk powder in Sri Lanka.
Apart from the tests routinely conducted at the SLSI lab as part of the import inspection scheme to ensure compliance with SLS 731, SLSI has also taken steps to test imported milk powder at internationally accredited labs to further confirm that there is no adulteration.
Based on this audit and the tests stated above, SLSI team further confirmed that there is no adulteration of milk powder with other fats such as palm oil, and that all full cream milk powder manufactured and exported by Fonterra to Sri Lanka contains only naturally occurring milk fat.
Director General for SLSI Dr. Siddhika G. Senaratne said that as the National Standards Body of Sri Lanka, their primary focus is to continue upholding the trust placed in the institution by Sri Lankans in assuring them of quality standards.
“As such, before issuing permit extensions for imported milk powder, we wanted to ensure our stringent audit process covered the entire manufacturing process in New Zealand, in addition to the local operations. The results of this comprehensive audit cover all imported full cream milk powders manufactured in New Zealand including Anchor, and gave us the assurance to confidently issue this year’s permits.”
The SLSI audit team conducted an exhaustive analysis of the entire food chain of Fonterra New Zealand, from on-farm milking and collection processes up to where the finished Anchor full cream milk powder products are dispatched for exporting to Sri Lanka.
Managing Director for Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka and the Indian Subcontinent Sunil Sethi said, “This confirmation by SLSI of the quality levels at each stage of the Anchor milk powder production process is a validation of the end-to-end food safety and quality measures followed by Fonterra, in New Zealand and Sri Lanka – all in order to ensure that we are giving Sri Lankans only the best quality dairy nutrition. I take this opportunity to reassure our consumers that any speculation about the quality of our products are baseless, and our milk powder brands are absolutely safe to consume,” he said.
In addition to carrying the SLS certification, every consignment of Anchor full cream milk powder imported to Sri Lanka is tested by the Food Laboratories of the Ministry of Health before being accepted into the country.
