Dhaka pasteurised milk sales tumble on court ban amid health scare

Sellers of pasteurised milk in Bangladesh have reported a drop in sales amid a health scare after tests found the presence of antibiotics in products of 14 companies and lead in 10 of these.

Moreover, the High Court on Sunday banned production and sales of pasteurised milk following the tests.

The Supreme Court chamber judge has lifted the ban on three companies, but retailers in Dhaka on Tuesday said sales have dropped.  

Grocer Obaidur Rahman at Shyamoli said his sales dropped to 5 litres a day from 10 to 15 litres.

Another grocer on Babar Road at Mohammadpur said he was neither selling pasteurised milk nor was he letting his family drink it after the reports on hazardous substances in the products surfaced.

Arifur Rahman, a customer, agreed. Stopping drinking milk for some days would not be harmful, he said.

bdnews24.com spoke to retailers in Mirpur, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, and Adabar areas who gave similar accounts on the sale of pasteurised milk.

Shah Md Mojahedul Islam, a spokesman for Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Limited, said the state-owned firm targeted a daily sale of 180,000 litres of its pasteurised milk product Milk Vita.

But on Sunday, when the High Court slapped the ban, the sales dropped to 76,000 litres and rose to 110,000 litres on Monday when the Supreme Court lifted the restriction.

Kamruzzaan Kamal, a director at Pran Dairy’s marketing department, also said their sales dropped after the results of the tests were published. He did not specify how much the sales dropped.

Pran Dairy’s product was also among those banned by the High Court. The Supreme Court on Tuesday lifted the ban on Pran and Farm Fresh of Akij Food and Beverage.