Beware of contaminated and expired drinks

Beware of contaminated and expired drinks

Debbie A. Lubis, Contributor, Jakarta

Standing on an economy class train from Bandung to Surabaya
for five and a half hours and driving a car for another 20 hours
did not make Sony Samdani, 40, feel sleepy nor lose his
concentration. He remained alert behind the steering wheel
although he had not slept for 26 hours!

"I just rely on this magical formula. It keeps my eyes bright
and boosts my stamina. I do not feel aches all over my body," he
said, showing three bottles of energy drink that he had just
consumed. Sonny has relied on energy drinks to help him in his
job as a driver for a rental car company since the early 1990s.

With the tremendous surge of energy they can give, energy
drinks have become more and more popular among men and women.
Many energy drinks can be found easily, even in small food kiosks
or gas stations.

"All my colleagues like to drink it but from the various
brands in the market, I only like two brands since they don't
taste too sour. Besides, they are relatively affordable," Sonny
said. One bottle cost around Rp 3,500.

He added that he never consumes more than three bottles a day
since most of his colleagues complained of weakness in the legs
after consuming energy drinks excessively.

Ruslan Aspan, deputy for the control on traditional medicine,
cosmetics, and complementary products at the Food and Drug
Monitoring Agency (BPOM), said that consumers should check
whether the products were registered with BPOM.

Beverages in cartons and energy drinks must have a
registration number from BPOM on their label. Consumers should
read and study the composition, the side effects and the warnings
on the label and brochures or other information that is usually
attached to the packet.

In 2001, BPOM withdrew three brands of energy drinks because
their caffeine level had exceeded the permitted level.

"Customers should comply with the suggested consumption, and
not consume products that are past the expiry date. They should
also not be too easily lured by energy drink commercials that
exaggerate the benefits of their products," he said.

BPOM routinely takes samples of carton drinks and energy
drinks and examines them at its laboratory and its 26 branches in
provincial capital cities. As of last year, it had examined 169
samples of energy drinks and all of them met the standard health
requirements.

M. Ma'roef, director of food inspection and certification at
BPOM, said that it was the obligation of the government,
consumers, and producers to monitor the quality of carton drinks
and energy drinks.

He said that the composition, registration number, expiry
date, warnings and instructions on the usage and storage of the
products were important to note.

"Consumers should pay attention to the physical condition of
the packaging whether it is damaged, bloated, leaking, rusty, and
it is advisable not to buy products that do not have clear
identification," he said.

The government has formulated some regulations to protect the
public from food products, including the carton drinks and energy
drinks that are unregistered, contaminated, past the expiry date
and poisonous.

All soft drink or energy drinks, either locally produced or
imported must be registered with BPOM and meet the standard
requirements and health standards before they are released on the
market. The products should have a certificate from an accredited
laboratory, a health certificate or certificate of free sale from
the country of origin.

The products are examined based on aspects of safety, quality
and efficacy like source of water, raw materials, additional
substances, primary packaging (that is in direct contact with the
product) and secondary packaging, level of metal/microbes,
manufacturing process, including production facilities.

The products will be given a registration number if they meet
all the standards. The institution also gives certification on
the production and distribution facilities. BPOM inspects the
production and distribution facilities, and confirms that they
are in compliance with existing rulings, including compliance
with good manufacturing processes.

BPOM then investigates and enforces the law and issues
warnings to the public. It also monitors side effects or unwanted
effects that the beverages and energy drinks can bring, does pre
audit and post audit on the products commercials and promotion.

Ma'roef said that BPOM will impose administrative as well as
legal sanctions on producers, importers, or distributors if their
products are proven to be below standards.

"The products that do not meet the requirements will be
withdrawn from the market and destroyed. If the producer or
distributor does not remedy the problem, then the registration
number will be withdrawn or the production suspended temporarily.
We also take legal action against producers who still distribute
expired products," he said.

For producers who do not put the expiry date on their product
label, BPOM will take gradual measures, beginning with a warning
letter, then withdrawing the products from the market, and
finally revoking the registration number.

"The expired products found in the market are destroyed. In
addition, sellers can also be taken to court," Ma'roef said.

The Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) said that BPOM had
sent a distributor of expired packed beverages in Yogyakarta to
prison for three months and hundreds of contaminated beverages in
Surabaya were withdrawn from the market.

"Those measures can be taken because of consumers' complaints.
Although the cases reported are still low, they reflect the huge
actual incidence in the field. Consumers have the right to
get correct information about the product and also to sue if they
consume products that have endangered their health," said Sularsi
of YLKI's consumer complaint division.

Most of the complaints received by YLKI are related to
contaminated and expired packaged beverages.