Food and Drug Department wants US company suspended

With the country now plagued by the persistence of food imports that transgress the Food and Drugs Act and pose possible serious health risks to consumers, the Government Analyst Food and Drugs Department (GAFDD) this week moved to have a United States-based company suspended from providing supplies to local food importers.

Stabroek Business has seen a copy of a letter written to Deputy Commissioner, Customs Excise and Trade Operations Lancelot Wills by GAFDD Director Marlan Cole seeking the support of the Customs and Trade Administration in “enforcing the suspension of the facilitative trade of items of foods by Central International Company LLC (CIC) of Massachusetts, USA.

In its communication the GAFDD said that CIC “continues to facilitate the shipment of items of foods to importers in Guyana with Free Sale/Health Certificates that are not in the right form,” and that many of the items that are shipped to customers in Guyana display labels that are non-compliant with both the country’s Food and Drugs Laws and the Food and Drugs Regulations.

The GAFDD letter asserts that CIC had been written to on January 25, over the company’s facilitation of “a shipment of tuna from China to a named local importer with a label that is false, misleading and deceptive.”

On January 20 the GAFDD also issued a media release advising consumers that it had refused entry of 2,000 cartons of tuna labelled Buiwick (not Brunswick). The release said that apart from being “false, misleading and deceptive… the product’s label was found to be inadequate according to the Food & Drugs Regulations of 1977.” The release also charged that the US-based company “knowingly and deliberately facilitates the importation of products into Guyana that are sub-standard and/or with inadequate labels.” It also claimed that CIC had, “on many occasions exported items of food to Guyana in the absence of documentation (Free Sale Certificate) in the prescribed form from the country of origin,” action that constitutes an infringement of the Food and Drugs Act.

When Stabroek Business spoke with Wills on Tuesday he acknowledged that he had indeed been written to by Cole on the CIC matter. Wills told Stabroek Business that the approach to the Revenue Authority had been made in the context of existing cooperation between the two departments on matters pertaining to compliance with the laws governing food and drug imports. With regard to likely action on the GAFDD’s request Wills said a decision by the courts on the matter would best provide “a directive on the way forward.”

The GAFDD, meanwhile, has said in its media release that it is moving to notify the regulatory agency in China of the development since “official documentation with attestation was used to facilitate the shipment of falsely labelled tuna to Guyana. It will also be notifying environmental officers and public health officers in the region.