| By Rosli Abidin
Yahya
This grocery shop (above) in Jalan Muara allegedly sell expired
products. Expired food sold at groceries in rural areas can
easily dupe villagers who cannot read nor know about the dangers
of consuming expired food products. Such action is seen to
maximise profits with a total disregard to associated health
problems. Pic by Hj Mohd Zaide
Grocery shops in rural areas are
allegedly selling expired products, many consumers have
complained. One said he had been to several village groceries
and saw that some of the products had expired.
He said the nation will become
a dumping ground of expired products if such irresponsible shops
continue to flourish and go unchecked.
He added that relevant agencies
should investigate the existence of such unscrupulous shops as
expired products could affect the health of consumers.
"A grocery at Jalan Muara
had been selling expired products including expired bread which
had turned mouldy," he said.
"Other products such as
condensed milk in the grocery had passed the expiry date,"
he said adding that when he highlighted the fact, the shop
attendants convinced him that the expired products were still
good.
He said he had also seen
expired products being sold at groceries in rural areas to dupe
villagers who could not read nor had any knowledge on the health
dangers of consuming expired food products.
He said expired products were
also sold at the same price as the non-expired items.
He attributed such action to
grocery shops to the purpose of maximising profits with total
disregard of the associated health problems resulting in the
consumption of the expired products.
"It was alarming to know
that there were groceries here which intentionally did that for
the sake of profit maximisation.
"Such blatant acts were
done by shop owners In the absence of consumer protection
legislations," he said.
He said he had also come across
where expiry dates on canned products were deliberately
blanketed so as to dupe consumers. "Some groceries even
covered the expired date with price labels.
"Action should be taken
against such deliberate attempts, to ensure such conduct would
not be repeated," he added.
He urged the relevant agencies
to act now and not to wait until consumers complained of health
problems resulting in the consumption of expired products.
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