Public told to be more critical when purchasing foodstuffs

Public told to be more critical when purchasing foodstuffs

JAKARTA (JP): The Ministry of Health urged the public yesterday to be more careful and critical when purchasing foodstuffs, cautioning in particular against expired and damaged products, and against food products that contain pork or alcohol.

Ministry spokeswoman Suheni Soedjatmiko said that, while the government was doing its utmost to protect the public, consumers should be more alert and check products' labels.

Many Indonesians are still not accustomed to reading labels on food containers or packages before buying them, and this often resulted in the purchase of unedible food, she said.

"They should stop blaming the government all the time ... If they are more careful, they can easily avoid making such mistakes," she told The Jakarta Post by telephone.

Consumer groups have repeatedly criticized the lack of legal protection for consumers against abuses or misrepresentations by food manufacturers.

Consumer groups have also found that food the expiry date of which has passed is often included in Idul Fitri packages. Some supermarkets even put expired food on their shelves, taking advantage of consumers' ignorance, they have claimed.

The government, meanwhile, is invoking the principle of caveat emptor (let the buyer beware), stressing that consumers should take greater responsibility for what they buy.

The 1992 Health Law compels food packagers to label products with information including the ingredients, composition and date of expiration. Violators are liable to criminal charges and penalties of one year's imprisonment or a fine of Rp 15 million.

Suheni conceded that the law on food labeling was not being fully applied, saying this was because the government regulations regarding the laws implementation had not yet been released.

"We still lack the necessary regulations for dealing with violators, as well as the facilities necessary to ensure law enforcement throughout the country," she said.

She said that difficulties inherent in the country's geography and large population were the main obstacles to enforcement of the law.

The ministry, she said, regularly sent officials to marketplaces to check whether or not producers were complying with the law.

"But there are too few of them and thus many irregularities can easily go undetected. It would be very helpful if the public were more careful about their own health and safety. They should not rely 100 percent on the government," she said.

Consumers, she said, must be "intelligent and critical," so that they may not be fooled by manufacturers or easily lured by advertising. "We've been independent for 50 years, surely Indonesians know better than to buy expired food or food in damaged containers," she said.

Suheni said that a woman once complained to her of a certain brand of imported foodstuff for infants had contained ham but not had a picture of a pig on its container.

"It was clearly written that the food contained ham, but the woman ignored it. It is impossible for us to tell every producer, especially foreign manufacturers, to add a picture of a pig to indicate the food is haram (forbidden by Moslem law)," she said.

The woman, she said, was not someone from a remote village. She was a journalist and bought the food from a supermarket, Suheni said.(pwn)