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)