News
Stale food products on sale, claim authorities
View(s):Sellers charge officials demand bribes to release stocks with minor blemishes
By Charundi Panagoda and Tharooshie Mahahewage
As Colombo markets get flooded with expired food products, Government authorities blame sellers for unscrupulous practices while sellers accuse authorities of corruption.
Just last week the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) detected more than 100, 000 kilos of potatoes, 1,000 kilos of dried fish and 48, 000 kilos of onions unfit for human consumption in Colombo, Kurunegala and Gampaha districts.
Public Health Inspectors (PHIs) with the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) seized 1,500 kilos of fungi-ridden grapes, 10,000 kilos of apples, 50, 000 kilos of oranges and 34, 000 more kilos of potatoes not fit for human consumption. In addition, the PHIs uncovered a pepper racket, where sellers extracted oil from the pepper and mixed the leftover residue with a high-grade product. Several Pettah wholesale merchants were also taken to court over incorrectly labelling varieties of rice.
These bad food products end up in bakeries, roadside eateries and even in five-star hotels, CMC Chief Medical Inspector Pradeep Kariyawsam said.
“I’ve seen some bad products ending up at five-star hotels when hotel supply officers purchase bad produce which are then supplied to the kitchen,” Dr. Kariayawasam added.
Reports of food poisonings have also been on the rise, Dr. Kariayawasam said. Stale food items such as potatoes beginning to sprout and go green and containing deadly toxin compounds could carry serious health risks,.
“But most people only report food poisoning when they get typhoid, not when they start vomiting or get diarrhoea,” Dr. Kariyawasam said.
A CAA official said the Authority discovered “tons and tons” of outdated food products in raids on Colombo and Dambulla warehouses. Though there is no apparent reason for the increase in outdated produce, CAA Acting Deputy Director Asela Bandara offered the festive season as an explanation.
“Possibly during the December holiday season, offices were closed and some stocks got held up at clearance points and when the stocks were released the food had already gone bad,” he said. “We assume businessmen started selling the bad stocks anyway otherwise it would have been a huge loss for them.”
CAA Director General J.M.A Douglas said some bad products were imported from countries like Pakistan and relabelled as local products. He added that some apprehended sellers argued in court that their products had already gone bad when Customs officials released them.
Customs Special Task force and Vigilance Director General M. Pasharan said the delays could only be possible if the importers didn’t have proper documents or money with them to have the products released on time.
“We have an express counter for perishable products to be cleared within one day,” he added. It’s natural for a small quantity of a product, per container, to go bad when perishables are imported, a wholesale businessman told the Sunday Times. He charged that PHIs unfairly declare the entire container as having expired products if one or two items have gone bad.
“When there are some expired products in containers, which naturally happens when fruits and vegetables are imported these PHIs, claim the whole container load is unfit for sale and they scare the business people to pay exorbitant bribes so they’ll release the stocks,” one wholesale merchant charged. “They lie and earn lakhs of rupees in the process, like the police.”
Dr. Kariyawasam said he didn’t know anything about bribes. The authorities are “destroying” the seized stocks by disposing them at CMC garbage dumping sites. According to media reports, some people go to the dumping sites to collect disposed vegetables to resell them to local stores. Mr. Bandara only said the CAA has “taken steps to prevent that,” without elaborating. Dr. Kariyawasam said kerosene is poured on stale food products to deter dump-site raiders.
Follow @timesonlinelk
comments powered by Disqus