China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine has issued a letter in which it asks its affiliate in Inner Mongolia to order Mengniu not to use osteoblast milk protein in its Milk Deluxe product.
AQSIQ says in the letter that as the country has not determined the safety of OMP, and since the additive IGF-1 is neither a traditional food material nor is it included in the list of food additives, it is against the current Chinese laws for Mengniu to use these two materials. AQSIQ says that if Mengniu believes that OMP and IGF-1 are safe, it should submit a document to the Ministry of Health and let the latter decide whether these additives are safe to us or not.
There have been quite a lot of doubts expressed concerning Mengniu's Milk Deluxe product as it contains OMP and IGF-1.
According to a representative from Mengniu, the company has filed a document to the Ministry of Health for the approval of the use of the materials. The person said that Mengniu had tested and found no problem with the use of OMP, but it would follow MoH rules on whether to use the materials or not. The person added that Mengniu has not used any OMP in its Milk Deluxe product since February 2, 2009.
According to Mengniu's specifications, osteoblast milk protein is a kind of protein taken from milk and it is useful for restoring body tissue. And insulin-like growth factors, commonly referred to as the Growth Hormone/IGF-1 Axis, is a kind of active protein polypeptide necessary for growth hormones to function.
