Joe Maalouf revealed last week during his show “7ki Jeliss” on LBCI that there are traces of Natamycin found in some Labneh products in Lebanon. These findings were based on laboratory test results conducted by UFAG, a well known lab based in Switzerland, and indicated that Dairy Khoury and Dairy Day milk products had traces of Natamycin, while Massabki Labneh had traces of sorbic acid. On the other hand, Candia and Taanayel didn’t show any traces of Natamycin or Sorbic acid.
It didn’t take long before Dairy Khoury held a press conference and explained to the public that they are not doing anything wrong, but Health Minister Wael Abou Faour still referred the case to the General Prosecution and claimed that “adding Natamycin to Labneh is a violation of Lebanese standard specifications in the production of strained yogurt”. He continued saying that “there were no published studies on the public health effects of using Natamycin at the levels found in the labneh, particularly on children”.
I am no expert when it comes to such things, but based on what I’ve read, Natamycin is commonly used as a surface preservative for certain dairy products in Europe and the US, but should not exceed a certain amount. Having said that, the Health Ministry should redo the tests properly and make sure all Lebanese companies are respecting the standards set. Moreover, Maalouf should investigate not only the Labneh companies violating the law (If they truly are) but why the concerned ministry didn’t perform the necessary checks and approve of such products in the first place.
why joe maalouf didn’t test the imported dairy products????? smthg fishy about that.
3mol maalouf w2af jeles w hki jeles wkhalli fa7sak jeles.
Yeah, they did no wrong. Exposing ourselves and our young children to daily doses of antibiotics is not wrong at all! Shehedit ISO my @$$! Abu Raymond should make them do a “mawdou3 insha” about the dangers of continuously exposing our bodies to antibiotics.
Samer you’re among some few people who know that antibiotics are ****! That, I like!
Samer it shows that you’re not knowing what you’re talking about. do your research and read that Natamycin is not an antibiotic it is an anti-fungi which is waaaaaaaay different 🙂 … So before hitting left and right make sure that you know what you’re talking about.
I don’t like Joe Maalouf usually
But even thought, Natamycin is Allowed in EU and by FDA as a protective cover substance with certain allowance, but not to be Mixed inside the product while production.
first of all natamycin is harmful even if within the allowable dosage because its an antibiotic and it kills all the good bacteria such as floar that helps the digestive system.
so if we dont remove it entirely like te3nayel and candia, we might as well eat shit n just fill our stomachs.
even if EU or USA use this substance that doesnt mean we should!
go see how they eat grow their cows and chicken and produce their meat… u would get sick…
so this is a very good step and I encourage this show and next Tuesday they will unveil the issue of bottled water.
and yes you are right that there is a huge blame to the government that didn’t do the necessary proper checking.
It stands to reason that if taanayil is not using these two substances, it must be using other substances to do their function. How can you know that the untested substances are not more dangerous than the ones tested?
Besides, unless you eat labneh baladi from the mountains , or you make your own after making your own laban , you should expect traces of chemicals at a certain level in your labneh. if the chemicals are approved by FDA and other similar institutions at a certain level then it should be acceptable to us as well, don’t you agree?