Over Rs. 38 m in fines on contaminated food

by Carol Aloysius

Surprise raids on vendors of contaminated and adulterated food islandwide have raked in over Rs 38 million by way of fines on offenders in the first six months this year.

"We raided 13,310 premises where food was being stored or sold in cooked form and the fines on the offenders totalled Rs. 38.02 million. It could double by the year's end", Secretary, Public Health Inspectors Union, Senerath Bandara told the Sunday Observer.

He said the Union had filed 5,160 cases against offenders at Magistrate's Courts islandwide. "Among these offenders are leading manufacturers of locally produced food items including margarine, biscuits, milk and fizzy drinks", he said. "We warned them to refrain from using certain banned ingredients or carry a warning label that they were not good for health especially in the case of margarine and milk consumed by children. Since they failed to heed our warnings, we had to take them to court".

He warned that stiff fines and cancellation of licences awaited future offenders under the Consumer and Food Act. Bandara said the Union's 1,850 food inspectors who conducted regular raids on all warehouses and retail outlets where cooked and uncooked food were sold and found that there had been a slight decline in contaminated foods due to increased awareness.

However, the problem continued to prevail islandwide.

"Adulteration of food comes mostly from sweeteners, colourings and flavours. The public should read the labels carefully before buying these items and check the expiry dates", he said.