Food, drugs monitoring agency seizes expired food products

In a two-day operation held last week, officers from the Bali office of Foods and Drugs Monitoring Body (BPOM) confiscated nearly 4,000 packages of unregistered and expired food products from stores and supermarkets in Denpasar and Badung.

"We found these products being sold at seven out of eight stores and supermarkets inspected during the operation," Bali office head Kori Pandjaitan said Friday.

The stores in Badung were PT Sukandana Jaya Badung, PT Kulina Utama and Toko Karya Nirmala. While the stores and supermarkets in Denpasar were Toko Bagus, CV Karya Maju Mandiri, Asindo Dewata and Hardy's.

She disclosed that the confiscated packages included 92 brands of unregistered food products and 38 brands of expired food products.

"Most of the unregistered products are imported goods from the US, Hong Kong, Italy, Australia, France, Thailand and New Zealand."

She added that the seized products were worth hundreds of millions of rupiah.

The netted food products included powdered milk, instant noodles, chocolate bars, frying oil, ice cream and canned foods.

"The public should inspect the package closely, checking for distribution license and official registration number, before purchasing any food product," she stressed.

Kori warned that her office would not bear any responsibility for the safety of any product that did not have a registration number.

The Bali office, she disclosed, is debating the possibility of fling a criminal charge against the managements of the stores and supermarkets caught selling unregistered and expired products.