QBB Ghee : Comments by Mr. M. D. Wilson, last general manager of the original QBB manufacturer

From 1946 upto to 2006, QBB Ghee was first produced by Queensland Butter Board, later known as Butter Marketing Board and finally known as Butter Producers Co-operative Federation (BPCF), Brisbane, Australia. This product was up to 2006 pure butterfat ghee produced from the milk of dairy cows. I am sure of that as I was the last general manager of this firm. Based on a joint decision by all shareholders, BPCF's factory and warehouse in Brisbane was closed down in 2006 and BPCF was finally liquidated in 2007. The agent for QBB for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei was all the while Sadka Bros. in Singapore, a firm owned by Singaporeans and Australians of Jewish descent. These people do not eat pork and will never condone to lard being added into their product. However somewhere after 2000, they sold of their shareholdings to Dairy Farmers of Australia, who eventually changed the name to QBB Pte. Ltd., Singapore. If you were to look at the Information Resources issued by ACRA of Singapore, the principal activities of QBB Pte. Ltd. now is preparing, canning and preserving of livestock and livestock products which indicate animal fat and tissue products. This completely different from dairy products which indicate cow's milk based products.

From 2007 onwards, Dairy Farmers have been supplying the raw material directly to QBI Packaging in Shah Alam who have packed QBB Ghee since then. Somewhere in 2007, the Ministry of Economy, United Arab Emirates had enforced on QBB Pte. Ltd. Singapore to categorise QBB sold in UAE as animal shortening. This can be seen in the following websites:

1) http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/08/07/03/10225548.html and
2) http://www.dubaicityguide.com/site/business-finance/data/Eng.%20%20Price%20List%20Group%202%20on%20May%2020092.xls.
3) http://www.economy.ae/English/Consumers/PricesAndMarketResearch/Pages/WeeklyPricereport.aspx
4) http://www.economy.ae/Documents/Thirds%20Group.pdf;

which indicate that QBB is sold as animal shortening in United Arab Emirates since 2007 and listed as a product of Singapore as it is manufactured under the licence of QBB Pte. Ltd., Singapore.

Ministry of Economy, United Arab Emirates is world renowned for its food labelling enforcement. Every food product container received at its port is checked to determine its actual content by lab analysis.

We know that animal shortening is the industrial definition of pig lard usually extracted and thereafter purified from the abdomen of pigs. It is quite clear to me that QBB Ghee sold not only in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei but in other parts of Asia, Australia from 2007 right until its halal certification revocation by JAKIM, Malaysia in August 2010 contained pig lard as butterfat prices were too skyhigh to make a handsome profit for Dairy Farmers. Despite all this, JAKIM still wants to certify QBB as pure butterfat ghee. This is indeed very heartbreaking for all of us who were in involved in ensuring QBB was pure butterfat ghee prior to 2006.