No risk of cancer in milk, minister says

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Minister Eker drinks milk during the opening ceremony of a diary eastern Turkey. DHA photo

Yesterday’s reports that said Turkish milk could cause liver cancer, hepatitis and cirrhosis due to traces of antibiotics and alpha toxin M1 were exemplifying a sort of “mercilessness,” said Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mehmet Mehdi Eker, according to Anatolia news agency.

“This is not even a one-in-a-thousand [cases]. There is nothing for our citizens to worry about,” he said, adding that the ministry had passed new regulations to clear away even a remote possibility of antibiotics traces in milk.

There was only one incident when traces of antibiotics and alpha toxin M1 were found last year, and the company was punished under former regulations, a ministry official yesterday told the Hürriyet Daily News. The official declined to name any company. The ministry is determined to promptly notify the public of the names of companies producing faulty milk, he said.

“Traces of antibiotics and alpha toxin M1 can be found in milk during controls and inspections conducted by the ministry,” Eker said in response to the written question of an opposition parliamentarian, according to daily Radikal yesterday.

“There is no problem declaring the names of companies involved in wrong-doing, but there is a serious issue that there are concerns whether the laboratories [of the ministry] are adequate,” Ali Osman Mola, general coordinator of Ankara-based ASÜD (Association Of Packed Milk and Milk Products Industry), told the Daily News.

“It would be too late to repair a misunderstanding,” he said.