Unsafe food removed

SHOP owners selling food beyond their expiry dates or food in dented cans have been warned that they are putting consumers at high risk and will be forced to close their operations.
Officers from the National Capital District Commission raided a shop at 9-Mile yesterday and removed food items such as canned fish and sausages which were well past their “use-by” dates, or were in dented cans.
Senior Environmental Health Officer Silas Johnathan warned shop owners to comply with laws prohibiting such trading practices.
“(Shops) will be closely monitored during our routine inspection to avoid a recurrence of such practices,” he said.
He said Governor Powes Parkop had requested everyone to do their bit in ensuring that the city was “healthy, safe, peaceful, active, great and smart’.
Johnathan said damaged food items posed a public health risk, while some shops were selling food items “not fit for consumption”.
He urged city residents to call the City Hall health division if they came across any food safety or public and environment health issues.
The telephone numbers are 3233212 and 3240 637.
The NCDC toll free number is 1800002.
Johnathan said NCDC health officials would continue to monitor the quality of food and goods sold in shops.
Yesterday, a team of public and environmental health officers removed “expired” and dented cans of food from a shop at 9-Mile.
They had responded to a complaint posted on social media about a shop selling canned sausages with the expiry dates on the cans erased. The team served the shop’s operations manager with a Certificate of Food Seizure or Condemnation and warned the shop owner to stop selling such food items. If he continued, the commission would close the shop or cancel its business licence.
A similar operation was conducted in a shop at Konedobu last December where all expired frozen goods were removed.