COLOMBO: The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) had seized 17.5 tons of expired bakery and cake ingredients from a storage facility in the Hendala, Wattala area.
The raid was carried out by the CAA and the Police Special Task Force officers.
The stock of expired food products was recovered from the storage facility of Madina Foods (Pvt) Ltd which imports bakery and cake ingredients and also operates a chain of restaurants.
At the time of the raid, employees of the said company were engaged in removing the expiry dates from the products and pasting new labels.
Accordingly, the CAA found 17.5 tons of bakery and other cake ingredients which had passed its expiry date.
Among the items found at this storage facility are custard powder, cake ingredients, vanilla, apple drinks etc. These goods had passed their expiry dates ranging from May 13th to December 06th.
Madina Foods also runs the Caravan Fresh chain of restaurants.
Madina goods distributed island wide, CAA in a dilemma
Under these circumstances, the CAA is in a major dilemma due to the fact that it is impossible to determine how much of these expired food items have been distributed island wide.
There are also around 25 Caravan Fresh outlets in their chain and as they use the ingredients imported by Madina Foods, the CAA is in a dilemma whether or not to seal all these outlets.
Investigations have also revealed that Madina had imported raw materials from America, Dubai and Germany and had supplied most of the main hotels in the country, in addition to restaurants throughout the country.
The CAA is taking steps to file legal action against this company and the storage facility has been sealed and police security has been deployed.
The CAA urged the public to provide any information on such goods on their hotline 1977. (Asian Mirror)
