Toxic Health Juices in the Market

The Health Ministry in a recent statement has announced that the three kinds of Jus Al Sunnah by Sri Saga Marketing (Jus Al Sunnah, Jus Al Sunnah Gold, and Jus Al Sunnah Penawar) have been banned. The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) is extremely disappointed that they are only now doing this as it shows the Health Ministry’s lackadaisical attitude towards the people’s health safety. There are so many things wrong with this “Jus Al Sunnah” situation.

These products had already been banned in other countries because their respective health ministries’ had already tested the products and found them to be adulterated with steroids. We believe that Singapore had already banned the products in 2017. The Brunei Health Ministry had stated clearly on 9 June 2018 at their website why the three kinds of Jus Al Sunnah as well as three other products that were also manufactured in Malaysia are banned in Brunei. CAP had also highlighted this issue to the Health Ministry’s Food Safety and Quality Division and Pharmaceutical Services Division in our letters dated 27 June 2018. Why did the Health Ministry wait so long to ban these dangerous products?

One might also ask how such dangerous products even made into the market. The answer is that supplements are not classified as medicines and thus do not need to be inspected by the Pharmaceutical Services Division. Instead supplements are labelled as food products and these products do not need to be inspected or registered by the Health Ministry before they enter the market. Therefore any action taken is always after the products are found to have violated provisions of the Food Act 1983.

Even though the Health Ministry is the proper authority in this matter we believe, at least in this case, that other ministries should also be held responsible.

The Jus Al Sunnah products were made to be marketed to Muslims. The name of the product itself, “Al Sunnah”, is a clear indication that the masterminds behind this venture commercialised Islam to target Muslim consumers. More importantly Muslims look for the official Halal label on products to determine if a product is permissible; and the Jus Al Sunnah products have the official Halal label. Firstly, our official Halal label can easily be printed on products to fool Muslim consumers, thus the integrity of the Halal labels on products is questionable and this is actually a major problem. Secondly, does JAKIM not carry out spot checks to determine if a product with the Halal label is really Halal certified?

Also the Customs Department needs to answer for the fact that such a dangerous product was allowed to leave Malaysia and be exported to our neighbouring countries. Just last week it was reported that the death of a woman in Singapore could have been caused by the Jus Al Sunnah that she had been diligently taking for the past six months.

Lastly, we would like to highlight that when we brought this matter up with the Health Ministry in June, we had given them pictures of many other “health juice” products similar to the Jus Al Sunnah that are also being sold. However, there has been no word on all the other dangerous “health juices” proliferating the market.

The only way to stop these kinds of products from being sold in the market is if the Health Ministry imposes stricter regulations. As such, we ask that it be made mandatory for supplements to be inspected and approved by Health Ministry before they are allowed to enter the market.

We also as the Health Ministry to send out their enforcement officers to confiscate all the Jus Al Sunnah products instead of waiting for retailers to hand over their stock of the product; and to also promptly withdraw all the products similar to it.

Press Statement, 26 September 2018