Ministry of Health gives conditional permission for Thriposha products for children between the ages of 06 months to 3 years

Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena told the Parliamentary Caucus for Children that it has been decided to give permission to restart the production of Thriposha, which is given to children between the ages of 06 months to 03 years, which has been temporarily suspended.

Accordingly, for a specific period of time, permission was granted for the production of Thriposha with conditions to provide the children with identified nutritional needs in the island, the Director General of Health Services further commented.

This matter was discussed when the Parliamentary Caucus for Children met in Parliament recently (22) chaired by Hon. Rohini Kumari Wijeratne.

The officials of the health sector said that the production of Thriposha, which is given to children between the age of 06 months to 3 years, has been temporarily suspended due to its high level of aflatoxin. The officials stated that the decision was taken due to the fact that the aflatoxin value of the Thriposha given to the children of that age group should be less than 1, but the products had exceeded that value. However, the Ministry of Health has given permission to conditionally raise the aflatoxin value to 5 in Thriposha given to children between the ages of 06 months to 03 years, as it is necessary to give this Thriposha to children with nutritional needs.  

In the meantime, the officials of Lanka Thriposha said that their company is ready to produce another nutritional food from rice instead of Thriposha. The officials told the caucus that a milling machine is needed for that production and it will cost about 400 million rupees. However, if half of the money is provided by the Sri Lankan government, it has been informed that they are ready to provide the remaining amount through the World Food Program. Accordingly, the chair of the caucus said that she will further draw the attention of the relevant authorities regarding this matter.

There was also a lengthy discussion about the need to cultivate high quality maize for the production of Thriposha and the steps should be taken to maintain that quality until the time of Thriposha production. 

A group of officials from the Ministry of Health and Sri Lanka Thriposha Ltd participated in this meeting