* Expired drinks made up the largest portion of the inventory, including 153 bottles of fruit juice, 16 bottles of energy drinks, 10 bottles of tonic water, and various soft drinks
* Urges consumers to remain vigilant by inspecting packaging expiry dates and product certification marks, and thus report any traders found violating fair trading laws
By Duncan Mlanjira
The Competition & Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) is urging consumers to remain vigilant by inspecting packaging expiry dates and product certification marks after the discovery of 649 expired products it discovered being sold in 14 shops.
In a statement, CFTC indicates that its enforcement officers took an inspections exercise in Mangochi, Machinga, Zomba, Mzimba, Mzuzu and Kasungu where they found some shops selling the expired and uncertified products.
“Expired drinks made up the largest portion of the inventory, including 153 bottles of fruit juice, 16 bottles of energy drinks, 10 bottles of tonic water, and various soft drinks,” says the CFTC in the statement.
Some of the 14 shops were found to be selling uncertified products and that “the expired products varied across multiple consumer categories, but also over various timeframes, which highlights gross negligence by the traders towards basic consumer safety standards”.
The enforcement officers inspected lots of 144 packs of biscuits, of which 72 of vanilla cream flavour were expired along with 20 packs of noodles, 20 bottles of yoghurt, and 26 cans of condensed milk.
The exercise also found other products such as 15 bottles of expired cosmetic products, 68 packets of yoghurt without expiry dates, 14 bottles of uncertified chillies, and 2 dietary supplements.
“The conducts are a violation of Section 51(e) of the Competition and Fair Trading Act (CFTA), which prohibits the supply of products that can cause injury or harm to consumers and those that do not comply with Malawi’s consumer safety standards, such as those that include expired products and uncertified products.
The CFTC indicates that it will take necessary regulatory measures against the shops which face monetary penalties to pay off up to 10% of their annual turnover once they would be found in violation of the CFTA.
The CFTC maintains that it with be continuing with the surprise market inspections, and thus urges the traders and suppliers to do their due diligence to ensure that they do not stock expired and uncertified products.
At the consumers are urged to inspect packaging expiry dates and product certification marks and to report any traders found violating fair trading laws.
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