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Unilever Phils says milk tea products melamine-free


MANILA, Philippines - Unilever Philippines, local distributor of Lipton Milk Tea, on Thursday assured the public that their products are free from toxic industrial chemical melamine. Unilever’s assurance came in response to reports that Unilever Hong Kong and Macau had pulled out their milk tea powder products from the shelves after finding traces of the kidney stone-causing chemical. Chito Macapagal, Unilever Philippines' vice-president for corporate affairs, said in a radio interview that they import their milk tea products from Indonesia, unlike Unilever Hong Kong and Macau, which get theirs from China. “Ang importante po ay maliwanagan ang ating mamimili sa Pilipinas na ang binebenta nating Lipton Milk Tea ay gawa po ito sa Indonesia (The consumers should understand that the Lipton Milk Tea being sold in the country is sourced from Indonesia)," Macapagal said. Unilever Philippines distributes three variants of the Lipton Milk Tea, namely the original, gold, and vanilla flavors. He said that aside from the Philippines, neighboring countries like Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia all get their Lipton Milk Tea shipments from Indonesia. Macapagal said that milk tea products from Indonesia are certainly free of melamine because the milk ingredients it uses come from New Zealand, Australia, and Europe. “Kaya ibang-iba po ang ating nakatinda dito sa ating merkado kaysa sa nakatinda sa Hong Kong (Our product here is different from that in Hong Kong)," he assured. However, just to appease worried consumers, Macapagal said they have already sent to the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) a “voluntary disclosure and public assurance." “Nagbigay na kami sa BFAD ng listahan para makita na nila ang sangkap, ilang porsyento ang gatas sa sangkap, at ang aming supply at origin ng milk sa lahat ng food products na may milk sa Unilever (We’ve already sent to BFAD the list of our ingredients and their origins)," he said. Macapagal said they decided to take the initiative to send to the BFAD their product list just to lessen the burden of the food agency, which is speeding up its laboratory testing of more than 50 milk brands and milk-based products. As for the milk tea contamination discovered by Unilever Hong Kong and Macau, Macapagal said the decision to pull out was really just “precautionary." He said that he has already received the laboratory results from their Hong Kong and Macau counterparts, which showed that their milk tea products indeed contain melamine in small amounts. “Clarification nila sa Hong Kong, precautionary lang ang ginawa nila. Nung nakita nila na nag-register na kahit konti lang ang melamine na imposible makasakit ng tao nanigurado pa rin sila at hindi nila ipagpapalit iyong reputasyon nila for profit (What Unilever Hong Kong did was just a precautionary measure. They don’t want to taint their reputation)," he said. Melamine contamination has only been so far discovered in Unilever’s Lipton-brand milk tea and not on all its food product lines. Last week, Unilever also pulled out its Lipton Green Milk Tea from the market because they were reportedly using milk ingredients imported from China. - GMANews.TV
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