Expired food items seized in Lampung, Yogyakarta

Oyos Saroso H.N. and Slamet Susanto, The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung/Yogyakarta

Ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday, provincial administrations are beginning the annual campaign to safeguard consumers against harmful food items.

In Yogyakarta, 1,075 packages of various food items were seized by the provincial Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) for fear they posed a danger to consumers. Zulaimah of the agency said on Thursday the food items were either expired, contained harmful substances or were not registered with the agency.

Of the packages, 68 were damaged, 20 were expired, five had already been withdrawn from the market and six contained harmful substances.

Separately, the head of the provincial agricultural and animal husbandry agency, Ngadiyono, warned the public to be cautious when buying meat.

Demand for beef and poultry usually increases ahead of the Idul Fitri holiday and people are eager to find the best bargains.

"We have set up a team to prevent (the sale of bad meat) but the public must still exercise caution," he said.

People should refrain from buying meat that is overly dark and has a stronger than usual odor, he said.

Pale looking beef also should not be purchased, Ngadiyono said. "It has a high water content because before being killed, the cows are flushed with water so the meat swells and the merchant gets more profit."

Ngadiyono also warned people against buying chicken which was bluish in color.

Also on Thursday, the Lampung BPOM seized 1.4 tons of noodles suspected of containing formaldehyde and borax from several traditional markets in the province.

The noodles were packaged in 280 plastic bags, each containing five kilograms of noodles. The agency also seized 420 kilograms of formaldehyde, 510 kilograms of borax and five kilograms of dye.

BPOM investigators failed to locate the suspected producer of the noodles, which they traced back to the village of Haduyang in Natar, South Lampung. However, they did identify the suspect as Erwin Tanjung.

Employees at the factory where the suspect noodles were produced said they did not know who owned the factory. One of the employees said the noodles were distributed across Lampung and a number of cities in other provinces in Sumatra.

The noodles are usually sold directly to traditional markets, where they are purchased mainly by noodle and meatball vendors, the employee said.

The head of the Lampung BPOM, Tri Suyarto, said the company, PT Abadi Jaya, should immediately withdraw all of its products and destroy the noodles in its warehouse.

Formaldehyde is used as a preserve and borax helps shape the noodles and prevent them from easily breaking apart, Suyarto said.

Borax is usually used in the production of glass, while formaldehyde is used to preserve corpses.

The BPOM identified the suspected factory, located behind an auto workshop, by tracing the origins of the noodles.

"We had been told by people about noodles that could last for a week," said Suyarto of the initial tip that led the agency to the noodles.

Hardadi, the lead investigator at the agency, said the use of borax and formaldehyde violated the 1992 health law and the 1996 law on food. The violations carry a maximum prison term of five years.

The head of the Lampung branch of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation, Subadrayani Moersalin, said similar cases had been found in Lampung but the suspects were always released.

"I fear there will be more victims without proper law enforcement," Subadrayani said.