-Food and Drug Dep’t warns
Following the discovery of expired goods and tampered expiry dates on condensed milk products at an East Coast Supermarket, the Government Analyst– Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) yesterday urged the consuming public to be vigilant.
In an advisory, the Department said that it advises consumers to “pay closer attention to the expiry date on products sold on our local market in general, particularly those that are sold in supermarkets along the East Coast, East Bank, and West Coast Demerara areas.”
It was noted that during an inspection exercise on October 5th, 2018 at a recently established supermarket on the East Coast Demerara, the proprietor was discovered to be “repackaging foods under unsanitary conditions, selling expired foods and also tampering (extending the date mark on Condensed Milk products).”
According to the advisory, during the exercise 51 tins of Condensed Milk, which had the date marks tampered with, were seized and removed from premises. Criminal proceedings have been instituted against this proprietor in the East Demerara Magisterial District under the Food and Drug Act, the Department said.
Section 5 of the Act states, ‘’any person who sells an article of food that is unfit for human consumption or was manufactured, prepared, packaged or stored under the unsanitary condition is guilty of an offence.’’
Also Section 6 states that “Any person who labels, packages, treats, processes, sells or advertises any food in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character, value, quality, composition, merit or safety is guilty of an offense.”
The release said too that members and representatives at the Department’s recently hosted National Food Safety and Control Committee meeting, held on October 9th, were briefed on this practice and were asked to take the necessary enforcement action in their respective regions/ areas.
“Consumers are again asked to ensure that all items of food have a label, is English Translated and to ensure the dates are closely examined and not altered or tampered with,” the release added.