Another warehouse with expired products closed

TDT | Manama

Bahraini authorities yesterday raided and shut down another illegal warehouse in the Kingdom that stocked food products past their expiry dates for supplying to shops here.

Workers of the warehouse in Hoora are in custody and being questioned to determine the extent of the crime. Ministry of Health officials held the raid in coordination with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.

The move comes after the ministry receiving a tip-off of fraudsters changing expiry dates of food items and redistributing it to stores here, said Abdulaziz Mohammed Al-Ashraf, Assistant Undersecretary at Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism.

The incident also comes a week after a major warehouse in Hamala was closed down by authorities as part of a nationwide clampdown on illegally sold expired food products.

Several stores suspected of handling products past their expiry dates were raided in Salmaniya, Al Hoora, Al Gudaibiya, Arad, Muharraq, Hidd, Isa Town, Al Riffa, and Hamad Town.

During one of the raids, a pastry shop, allegedly using expired labnah in their pastries, was closed down. Seized labnah, reportedly, had an expiry date of 22 January 2020.

The warehouse raided in Hamal had stocked up eighty-thousands food products past their expiry dates. Officials seized food products belonging to 80 different brands from there.

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 also found.