FOOD for the Poor, one of Jamaica’s leading charitable organisations, said it is confident that a container loaded with infant formula that was imported from China for distribution island-wide is not a part of the batch of toxic milk products that killed at least four children and sickened more than 56,000 others in that country.

Bradley Finzi-Smith, executive director of the organisation, confirmed that the container load of infant formula called Gain Advance was imported to the island nine months ago and distributed to several communities across the island. However, he said there have been no complaints of illnesses by people who used the formula.

“We have not received any feedback for that particular product,” he said. “No tests were done on it, but there was no ban on it to say that it cannot be distributed here.”

Spokesperson at Bureau of Standards Jamaica, Ellis Laing, told the Sunday Observer that the products would not have been routinely tested on arrival in the island because they were not intended for commercial sale. Products imported for charity purposes, he said, would fall under the purview of the Ministry of Health, but the ministry in turn referred the Sunday Observer to the BSJ.

Last month, it emerged that some several tons of infant powdered milk and cow’s milk in China was tainted with melamine, a chemical compound used to make plastics and fertilisers in a number of commercial and industrial applications.

It is high in nitrogen and when added to watered-down milk products, tricks standards tests into believing that there is a high protein level. Consumption of melamine causes the development of kidney stones and may lead to kidney failure.

Chinese state press have since reported that more than 40 people in central and northern China have been arrested for producing, selling or adding the chemical to milk. More than 20 companies have been implicated in the scandal, including, Mengniu Dairy Company and Yili Industrial Group Company Ltd as well as the Sanlu brand.

But a group of women in Wilton Gardens (more commonly known as Rema), an inner-city community in Kingston where Gain Advance brand was distributed when it arrived nine months ago, told the Sunday Observer that none of their children had fallen ill since consuming the Gain Advance formula.

“Me give it to my baby, and nothing nuh do her. She only have a little diarrhoea, but that a normal thing,” said one of the residents who refused to give her name. She was among a group of women who spoke with the Sunday Observer recently.

“Me give it to my baby from she born ’til she a six months old.”

But according to the residents, the infants were not the only ones drinking the formula as some adults were also using it as a substitute for cow’s milk.

“Some people use it and drink corn flakes,” another resident said. “Me nuh like how it taste, but my sister them love it. It come inna chocolate and vanilla and them have rice and banana cereal too.

The women also told the Sunday Observer that some of the formula was being sold in the Coronation Market in downtown Kingston.

“Me see them a sell it fi $100 down deh and you can get all kind of flavours,” one of the women said. “A nuff people round yah buy it down deh cause it so cheap.”

The Sunday Observer went in search of the formula, but was unsuccessful. And the BSJ, which said it had intensified its search for milk-based products from China, said it has not been able to track down Gain Advance or any other milk-based product from China for that matter.

“The Inspectorate Division of the Bureau of Standards has, since the initial alert, intensified its search within the marketplace for milk-based products from China, and after visits within the Corporate Area and the parishes across the island have not found any Chinese infant formula on local supermarket or shop shelves,” said the BSJ in an advisory last week.

The Sunday Observer submitted the tin of Gain Advance it obtained to the BSJ for testing. However, the Bureau later said our tin was not tested because of the fact that it was manufactured in 2005, which places it outside the period of concern as per the batches of tainted milk which only started to surface in September this year.

Nevertheless, the Bureau is encouraging consumers to be vigilant and pay attention to labelling and expiration dates.

It said while the initial concern was for infant formula manufactured within China, there are additional reports pointing to the possible presence in chocolate, hard candy and biscuits, among other items.

At the same time, advisories within the US and Canada discourage the consumption of some ‘Mr Brown’ instant coffee products, as well as some Cadbury chocolates manufactured in the Asian country. New Zealand has also raised concerns about ‘White Rabbit’ Creamy Candies.