There is no reason to panic! Croatian milk is of high quality, said Minister of Agriculture Tihomir Jakovina at a press conference on Friday where the results of milk analyses for determining aflatoxin levels were presented.
The main culprit was animal feed from 11 farms in eastern Croatia, and those producers will have their animal feed replaced to prevent a recurrence. In a coordinated action ‘from field to table’, 184 samples were taken within a week, from the industry, producers, and imports.
The results showed that 64 samples were contaminated with aflatoxins among processors, from 11 out of 15 analyzed farms, and one sample from imports. This concerns the dairy Mlijekoprodukt from Kozarska Dubica, with the brand Moja kravica. The level of aflatoxin is 0.084 micrograms per liter, while other analyzed samples ranged from 0.06 to 0.08 micrograms per liter. Additionally, the sanitary inspection sent 12 samples from retail for analysis, among which are nine foreign and three domestic processors. These results will be known at the earliest by the beginning of next week. Therefore, further withdrawals of contaminated milk can be expected.
As for the processors, the leaders of Dukat and Vindija – Alen Fontana and Dragutin Drk – were present at the press conference. Both announced the introduction of milk testing for aflatoxins as they have already purchased the equipment. While Drk apologized to his customers, Fontana merely thanked them. These two companies have been the hardest hit in the past week due to the emergence of aflatoxins, as their sales have dropped by 30 percent. They hope that everything will return to normal soon. Also present at the press conference were Deputy Minister of Health Marijan Cesarek, as well as deputy ministers of agriculture, and toxicologist Radovan Fuschs. In the end, everyone had a glass of milk.
