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Some goat's milk might be more moo than bleat

"Although both goats' milk and cows' milk are nutritious, consumers have the right to know whether the products they have purchased are made of pure goats' milk or [not]."

Chen Lu-hung, director of the Bureau of Food Sanitation

Nearly 10 percent of the goats'-milk products sold on the nation's grocery shelves contain some amount of cows' milk, without indicating that fact on their labels, the Department of Health said yesterday.

The department made the announcement at a news conference to publicize the results of its nationwide inspection of goats'-milk products.

The inspection, conducted between May and August, was aimed at checking whether goats'-milk producers had honestly labeled products that also contained cows' milk.

The department analyzed samples of 255 different brands of locally-produced pure or flavored goats' milk, goats'-milk powders and goats'-milk tablets.

Among the 98 samples that did not indicate any cows' milk on their package nutritional labels, three brands of goats'-milk powder and six kinds of flavored goats' milk contained cows' milk.

But the 17 products that claimed to be pure goats' milk were verified as not containing any cows' milk.

"Compared to the 30 percent [of pure goats' milk samples that were found to contain cows' milk] in 2000 and the 16 percent last year, producers [of pure goats' milk] have made great improvements," said Chen Lu-hung (陳陸宏), director of the department's Bureau of Food Sanitation.

Chen said that since the cost of goats' milk is higher than cows' milk, producers often cut costs by adding cows' milk to their products.

"Although both goats' milk and cows' milk are nutritious, consumers have the right to know whether the products they have purchased are made of pure goats' milk or are supplemented with cows' milk," he said.

Manufacturers that fail to truthfully label their products face fines of between NT$30,000 and NT$150,000 under the Food Sanitation Law.

The report can be found on the Bureau of Food Sanitation's Web site at http//food.doh.gov.tw
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