Sabrina Gordon,Business Reporter

The Jamaica Bureau of Standards has pulled almost 100 counterfeit tubes of toothpaste bearing the name Colgate from retail shelves.

At the same time Colgate-Palmolive has issued a reminder that there is only one authorised distributor of its product in Jamaica, Kirk Distributors.

The fake toothpaste was discovered in three outlets in St. Ann and Trelawny.

"In all cases reported, the products were immediately taken from the shelves," said Ellis Laing, spokesman for Bureau of Standards.

"Tests have been conducted on suspect samples and initial findings suggest that there are elevated levels of Diethylene Glycol in these samples."

The counterfeit toothpaste can be easily identified because it is labeled as 'Manufactured in South Africa'. Colgate has advised that it has no operating base in that country.

Additionally, the counterfeit packages are said to have misspellings including: 'isclinically' 'SOUTH AFRLCA' 'South African Dental Assoxiation', and comes in regular, gel, triple and herbal versions.

Their presence in Jamaica has been traced to informal commercial importers.

"The most that can be done is to cease and destroy the product as it does not represents an illegal act per se," said Laing.

Colgate has approximately 70 per cent of the toothpaste market in Jamaica, said Glen Christian, managing director of Kirk Distributors, adding there was no immediate danger to its market from the product.

With the regulators

"There is no indication at this time of a switch from the product and we don't foresee any decline in sales as we are at this time working with the regulators to educate consumers that we are in no way associated with this product," said Christian.

He said the toothpaste it distributes comes from factories in the Dominican Republic, the United States, Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico.

The company and the standards agency are also double-checking products on shelves, monitoring ports of entry, visiting trade shows totrack the illicit product.

No illnesses have been reported to date.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has labelled Diethylene Glycol as having a low health risk but said nonetheless that it does not belong in toothpaste.

Consumers are advised to pay careful attention to the label information on packages to determine the country of origin, the address of the manufacturer and the ingredients used in the manufacture of the toothpaste.

sabrina.gordon@gleanerjm.com