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Stocks of expired cheese discovered during CAA raid
View(s):The Consumer Affairs Authority has detected a large stock of outdated ‘Happy Cow’ cheese which the CAA believes is to be re-packed and released to the market.
A CAA official said 2,880 packs of ‘expired’ cheese were found mixed with non-expired goods at the Lanka Milk Foods factory in Welisara. But a company official said the stocks were kept there to be destroyed.
The CAA official said the detection was made when they conducted a raid following a complaint that milkfood was being hoarded by the company.
“We found this stock of Happy Cow cheese on a complaint made to us. The cheese expired in October this year. However, the expiry date was marked only on the lid and not on the wrapped pieces inside,” said the senior officer who was in the raiding party.
The raid was initially carried out on a tip-off that a large stock of milk food was being hoarded in expectation of a price hike. Meanwhile a shortage of milk powder has been reported in the markets.
In another raid on a private warehouse in Seeduwa, CAA officials also found Nespray stocks which were apparently being hoarded in anticipation of a price hike, the official said. CAA Chairman Rumy Marzook said legal action would be taken against the two milk powder companies for hoarding large quantities of milk powder in warehouses instead of releasing them to the market.
“Milk powder companies have requested that they be allowed to increase prices and as the Government has not given permission, the stocks are hoarded to create a shortage. It is unfortunate that children are being deprived of milk in this manner,” he said.
Asela Bandara, Deputy Director of Consumer Affairs and Information at the CAA said investigations and raids would continue. Lanka Milk Foods General Manager Patrick Wickremasinghe said the 12,000 kilograms of milk powder were allocated for employees.
“We have 400 employees and each employee gets one kilogram of milk powder for a month. Also about 800-1000 schoolchildren get liquid milk every day. These stocks were not being hoarded,” he said. Commenting on the stocks of cheese where their expiry date had lapsed, he said they were being kept to be destroyed.