None of the raw materials for dairy products sold in Malaysia were sourced from China and therefore were safe from melamine, they said.

The companies are Dutch Lady Malaysia, F & N Dairies and Nestle Malaysia.

Dutch Lady managing director Hans Laarakker said, "whatever his company distributes within Malaysia is manufactured within our factories in Petaling Jaya itself or mainly imported fully-packed from countries such as the Netherlands and New Zealand."

Speaking at a press conference here, Laarakker said the milk used in the finished products here "come from the cows in the Netherlands and New Zealand.

"Our products are safe for consumption," he said.

Malaysia, he said, did not carry the company's strawberry-flavoured milk product that was taken off the shelves in Singapore. The product was produced in China.

Laarakker also clarified that a text message that started circulating yesterday had probably originated from Singapore. "The messages served to warn Singaporean consumers instead of Malaysians," he said.

The New Straits Times had reported on Tuesday that an SMS had been circulating listing several popular brands of chocolates and ice-creams that were being recalled because of melamine contamination.

Health Minister Datuk Liow Tiong Lai had urged Malaysians to ignore the messages.

In a statement issued yesterday, Nestle Malaysia also assured consumers that all its products here are safe.

It does not import any milk powders from China.

Instead the milk used for its milk powders and dairy based products were sourced from Australia, New Zealand, Europe or the United States.

On recent press reports claiming that traces of melamine had been found in one of its growing up milk powder brands, NESLAC Gold 1+, Nestle said that its headquarters in Switzerland had issued a statement invalidating the reports.

The headquarters' statement said that the Hong Kong Government's Food and Environmental Hygiene Department had declared the product safe and free from melamine.

Nestle Malaysia also said that the NESLAC Gold 1+ was not available in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, F&N Dairies (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd also issued a statement saying that the company's range of products sold in Malaysia were safe and fit for consumption.

The raw materials of these products were not sourced from China, but came from Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Europe.

Its Magnolia ice-cream, which was manufactured in Thailand and sold here, did not use dairy raw materials from China. -- NST