Hi,
Can anyone provide some information on how serious the impact of tampering with expiry date is? What is authentic source to find out this? How many serious cases happened globally that affected consumers' lives negatively? How are the manufacturers dealing with the problem?
Thanks,
Ashish
Amongst the basic necessities of life, food is the key to survival. Consumers work tirelessly to earn money to put food on the table for their family. The least consumers don’t expect is to be sold items which are unsafe for consumption. Unfortunately, the Council has increasingly come across supermarkets in the country which sell food items that are of concern from public health perspective. Through market surveillance, the Council on a regular basis has uncovered bad business practices that lead to abuse of consumers’ rights. Market surveillance is so important, not only to protect consumers from unsafe products but also to ensure a level playing field for reputable businesses. This activity is not only confined to mystery shopping but also involves proactive interaction with traders when problems are identified.
During trader visits, the Council Staff inspects the manner in which the varieties of goods are sold to consumers. In particular, how the products are labelled; does it follow the labelling requirement under Food Safety Act; language used on the labels; pricing; expiry dates; and the cleanliness of the stores. However, some unscrupulous traders never fail to amaze the Council with their deceitful acts. Time and again the Council has come across some repeat offenders engaging in the sale of expired products or products with improper labelling. Despite the matter being raised with the enforcement body, the Council fails to see signs of improvement in some of the supermarkets. This is definitely not the first time that the Council has come across a supermarket which does not care about the health and safety of consumers but is rather concerned with the attitude of the supermarket operators who expect consumers to be vigilant all the time. Why should this be the case? Innumerable times the Council has noted traders tampering with expiry dates to make it look like items are still good for consumption. The Council has been diligently raising the issues with the Ministry of Health’s Food Unit which is the enforcement agency responsible for food items. However, it is obvious that not enough is being done to curb such acts by traders. When the traders know that the enforcement arm is weak, they will continue to engage in such unlawful tactics.
While the Council sincerely hopes that the enforcement agency will act upon such cases and fine traders who think they can take the consumers for a ride. Alternatively, it calls on consumers to not wait for someone else to take action, but rather boycott such supermarkets in a bid to teach them a lesson. It is time consumers start prioritizing their health and safety and in doing so ensure that they give their hard earned money to supermarkets that operate ethically and they genuinely care for consumers’ health and safety.An expiration date or expiry date is a previously determined date after which something should no longer be used, either by operation of law or by exceeding the anticipated shelf life for perishable goods/foods. Expiration dates are applied to selected food products and to some other manufactured products like infant car seats where the age of the product may impact its safe use. Arbitrary expiration dates are also commonly applied by companies to product coupons, promotional offers and credit cards. In these contexts, the expiration date is chosen for business reasons or to provide some security function rather than any product safety concern. Expiration date is often abbreviated EXP. The legal definition and usage of the term expiration date will vary between countries and products.
Tempering with coding or expiry date comes under "food fraud'
ISO 22000: 2018 has clause related to this.
Many countries has law/regulations related to this.
please read PAS, VACCP and Food Fraud.
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