~ Five truckloads of unsafe items dumped ~
PHILIPSBURG--A "follow-up" inspection of food labelling at Sang's Supermarket last week turned into a major bust on lack of compliance with food safety regulations.
Health inspectors spent four days combing through the supermarket and carted off a total of five truckloads of food and meat products that were expired and unfit for human consumption.
Of concern to inspectors was the move by the supermarket to slice and repackage expired cheese that it had been instructed to dump a day earlier. Food and Safety Department Head Inspector Michael Somersall told The Daily Herald the department had first visited Sang's on March 10 for a routine follow-up control on labelling of food products, in which area the establishment was found breaching the rules.
Several items such as unlabelled imported bread were dumped on the first day of the follow-up inspection and the supermarket was advised to dispose of a batch of expired cheese. However, instead of dumping the cheese, Somersall said, the supermarket sliced and repackaged the expired cheese and placed it in the deli display for sale. What had been dumped, he said, were the empty boxes with the expiration dates scraped off.
Somersall said inspectors were convinced this was what had happened, because they had counted the number of packages of good cheese and expired cheese the day before and the number of good cheese packages had stayed the same.
Inspectors also found products that were "over-dated."
"Instead of the one to two days holding time required for chicken pieces and ground beef, and the four to six days for portion cuts of beef, a 10-day holding time was implemented for all chilled products.
"Breads that were imported had no 'packed' dates or expiration dates. The temperature of the deli display cabinet was not up to standard. After their findings, the inspectors decided to do a full inspection. Sang's was found in default of more violations," he said.
Other expired items found were chilled products such as Gouda cheese with expiration dates of November 23, 2009, ham with expiry dates of January 2010, and yogurt with expiry dates of March 2009.
"The same was found in the freezer. The freezer was a mess – old and new products mixed. The products unfit for consumption were confiscated for destruction," Somersall explained.
Sang's is one of about six supermarkets inspectors have controlled for proper food labelling recently. Somersall said the other establishments had had minor infringements that had been corrected.
He added that Sang's had been warned verbally and in writing, confiscation of goods had been carried out, and the decision as to what other legal actions would be taken against Sang's was still pending.
Food labelling
The Inspectorate of Public Health, Social Development and Labour VSA issued a press release more than a month ago informing businesses about the need for proper labelling of food products.
Somersall said VSA had "been lenient," giving food establishments more than a month to "get their act together."
He warned that inspections of all food establishments would continue. "'Don't wait until it is too late to get your act together,' is the warning from the Department, because public safety comes first. Don't expect leniency when you are in violation of the law. You can't sell old and out-dated food products to our consumers. This is people's health we are talking about," he said.
He said a risk analysis of the most critical areas in the food supply chain conducted by VSA showed that the labelling of food products was the most critical area for food safety in St. Maarten. As a result, the department is focussing heavily on this area to ensure that businesses are adhering to the requirements of Article 3 (1a, f and j) of the Commodities Act, P.B, 1997, Nr.334.
This law states that all chilled, fresh and frozen meats, poultry, fish and their products must have an expiry date when packed and displayed for sale.
All goods for sale must have proper labels.
All goods for sale must have labels indicating their ingredients, and breads and pastries from local bakeries must have labels indicating the bakery at which they were produced, the type of bakery products – e.g. whole wheat bread, whole wheat salt-free bread, etc. – and the date on which the item was produced.
