‘Retailer sold expired malted drinks’

A major corporate wholesale dealer in the district has been found to have sold expired malted milk hot drinks. The dealer had also offered discounts on these products. A raid was conducted on the outlet on the outskirts of the city on January 12, in which officials seized 57 cans.

Tests performed at the Government Food Safety Laboratory here, the results of which were known on Wednesday, confirmed that the products were “misbranded and contravened the rules”. A case will be filed against the outlet under the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006, a senior official in the Tamil Nadu Food Safety and Drug Administration Department (Food Safety Wing) told The Hindu .

According to sources, the raid was conducted after a consumer alerted the officials regarding the sale of expired products. Upon seizing the bottles, the officials found subtle alterations in labels, which while appearing minor, were a serious violation of the norms.

An official said that the food products with shelf-life of more than three months must mention the ‘best before’ month and year in the label. However, this hot drinks company had printed ‘best from the date of packaging’ in the label but did not mention the date in the label.

While the product was manufactured in January 2014, it had a shelf life of a year or till December 31. The dealer had the product till January 12 this year. However, the dealer claimed the product was manufactured on January 31, 2014 thereby making it valid till January 31, 2015.

Under the FSS Act, only the month was factored in and all products are presumed to have been manufactured on the first day of the month. The official also pointed out that the product did not have the date in any case. Also, the batch number was also missing from the records.The FSS Act places responsibility for selling safe food products not only on the manufacturer, but also on the dealers.

Those having information about adulteration and other malpractices regarding food products can alert the Food Safety Wing, telephone no: (0422) 222 0922 between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.