YLKI cautions against purchasing expired foods

YLKI cautions against purchasing expired foods

JAKARTA (JP): In the light of traditions of exchanging gift
packages for Christmas and Idul Fitri, the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation (YLKI) has reiterated its cautionary warning on the
purchasing of foodstuffs, including imported products.

In a discussion on imported foodstuffs, YLKI presented on
Thursday the results of its survey carried out in seven
provincial capitals.

It revealed, among other things, that border areas such as
Aceh and West Kalimantan, were among those most prone to the
illegal importation of foodstuffs. Among violations was the sale
of canned food which had past its expiry date. Other illegal
items were those which did not have registration numbers with the
Ministry of Health.

"Both areas (Aceh and West Kalimantan) are very close to
neighboring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia," Zumrotin
K. Susilo, YLKI's executive director, said.

YLKI ran its survey from March to May this year in popular
supermarkets in Jakarta, Banda Aceh in Aceh, Pontianak in West
Kalimantan, Palu in Central Sulawesi, Lombok in West Nusa
Tenggara, Ambon in Maluku and Surabaya in East Java.

"Among the findings were imported foodstuffs whose dates had
expired... most often found were packages of biscuits, milk,
soft drinks, baby food, fish and vegetables," Zumrotin said.

Labels on the products showed they came from China (28.6
percent), United States (23.8 percent), Malaysia (19.1 percent)
and Thailand (7.5 percent) while the rest were from Korea,
Singapore, Taiwan, Hongkong and Japan.

Especially in Aceh and Pontianak, she said, the imported items
were easily distributed and ignored by customs officers.

"There is a growing consumption of imported food but consumers
only possess little information about it.

"This is dangerous especially because globalization will bring
massive importation of food here... while we do not have
sufficient rules and government control is very weak," Zumrotin
added. Some of the findings in Aceh were of the popular brand
of energy drinks manufactured outside Indonesia which were
labeled in the Thai language. Zumrotin said this was "confusing
and dangerous."

An official of the Directorate General of Food and Drugs
Supervision at the Ministry of Health, Ma'ruf, admitted that the
government has yet to formulate sufficient regulations.

"Most complaints have been very hard to deal with because
distributors refuse to take responsibility for the foodstuffs and
point fingers at the manufacturers," he said.

Sumaryoko of Gelael Supermarket said that retailers often
found difficulties in determining the validity of imported
products. "Distributors are only given a copy of documents from
manufacturers" which he said could be easily forged or changed.

Other supermarkets represented at the talks included Grasera,
Metro and Kemchick. YLKI urged all supermarkets to play a front
line role in controlling imported foodstuffs at their outlets,
given their responsibilities to consumers. Gift packages must be
closely monitored too, Zumrotin said. (edt)