Ministry clamps down on expired goods

TDT | Manama

Bahrain is enforcing a nationwide clampdown on vendors selling expired food products after relabelling it. Citing reports of several such instances, officials at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism said it is enforcing stringent actions against all such illegal practises harmful to the lives of people here.

“Fraudsters are changing expiry dates of food items and redistributing it to stores in Bahrain,” said Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Ashraf, Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry. The ministry, he said, is organising visits to stores in several areas of the Kingdom suspected of conducting such illegal activities.

As part of the move, Ministry officials raided several stores in Salmaniya, Al Hoora, Al Gudaibiya, Arad, Muharraq, Hidd, Isa Town, Al Riffa, and Hamad Town. Expired Labnah During one of the visits, legal actions were taken against a pastry shop for allegedly using expired labnah in their pastries. Seized labnah, reportedly, had an expiry date of 22 January 2020.

80 thousand expired products In another major clampdown on illegal sales of expired products, ministry officials confiscated more than 80 thousand expired products from a warehouse in Hamala.

The warehouse in an area of around 750 square meters stacked up more than 80 thousand expired food products belonging to 80 different brands of multiple origins.

Confiscated items included rice, lentils, chickpeas, ground spices such as black pepper and turmeric, pickles, tomato paste, grape leaves, corn, coconut powder, and many others. Equipment used for altering the expiry date of products as well as various labels bearing brand names were found.