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Contact:
Claudia
Monlouis
Monday, July 9, 2007 – The Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards says shelves
of retail stores are now cleared of recalled toothpastes, which the Food and
Drug Administration of the United States announced as possibly containing a
poisonous substance called DEG. DEG is the abbreviation for Diethylene Glycol.
The toothpastes raising the concerns were reportedly imported from China.
Acting Head of the Compliance Department of Bureau of standards Hubert Reynolds
said the department moved swiftly to deal with the matter after the information
was revealed.
“Typically in terms of a recall the compliance Department would be the one
responsible for it. Our officers are out there doing market surveillance on a
daily basis and if they come across any item that is suspicious or for which
there is a recall internationally then we would take a close look at that item
.If there is an international recall we take them off the shelf immediately or
if it's a suspected item then we take it for testing,” he said.
Reynolds explained that in some cases there are retailers who have stocks of the
recalled toothpastes in their warehouses, but they have cooperated by informing
the Bureau, which will then ensure they are quickly disposed of, in keeping with
the Bureau's standards.
Meantime the Bureau of Standards have been highlighting the importance for St.
Lucians to pay attention to the labels of the commodities they are purchasing.
The Bureau says, more so, St. Lucians need to ensure they can read the labels.
Labels for commodities for sale in St. Lucia are supposed to possess readable
fonts and should always be in English.
“The label needs to be in English,” Mr. Reynolds stressed. “It could have other
languages as well however they need to be distinct from where you have the
English written and it has to have all the components where the consumer can
make a decision as to whether they want to use it or not. So for instance all
the ingredients will be listed , the place of manufacture, the manufacturer,
should be on the label, details of that nature.”
Mr. Reynolds said in cases where there is use of only a foreign language the
Bureau of Standards advises the retailer to post an accurate English translation
of the ingredients on the products. He said where there is non-compliance,
retailers run the risk of having their products seized.
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