Retailers and wholesalers found selling improperly labelled food items especially wheaten flour and powered milk or repackaging them under unsanitary conditions, will be prosecuted and their products seized.
The Government Analyst Food and Drug Department has begun a nationwide campaign against improperly packaged foods, with special emphasis on the said flour and milk, the agency’s director, Marilyn Collins, said in a press release last Monday.
The campaign comes in the wake of increased consumer complaints of possible adulteration of powered milk and wheaten flour. Collins said with the opening of the market and concomitant multiple sourcing of wheaten flour, the possibility of substandard quality of this commodity has now surfaced. She said the lack of proper labelling does not allow for traceability, recall and possible prosecution of offenders.
“In light of this, the department is insisting that all packaged wheaten flour and powdered milk offered for sale must be labelled in accordance with the Food and Drug Regulation of 1977 Section 18 and the Guyana Standard for labelling of pre-packaged foods, promulgated by the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS),” Collins said.
She said too that the proper packaging and labelling of the said commodities and others will allow the department to inspect and license facilities in accordance with the basic tenets of food hygiene.