A report this week that 483 pounds of imported, frozen duck which had been illegally imported from the United States since last year, and whose expiry date had passed, had been seized and dumped raises several important questions. Just how did such a quantity of illegally imported food get past the Customs authorities? And since it did, how much more is likely around somewhere waiting to be unleashed on unsuspecting holiday shoppers? The report did not indicate, but surely there will be further investigation.
The seizure, according to the report, was a joint effort of the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) and the Ministry of Health whose officers confiscated the packages that were stored at the Wieting and Richter Ice Factory and Cold Storage warehouse at Water Street, Georgetown. The importer can be fined and faces penalties for breaching the regulations, it said.
It is well known that there are several duck farms in this country which adequately supply the local market. But apparently there was a shortage last year due to high mortality among the duck population. Who knew? Duck is hardly standard fare as it is priced higher than chicken. Nevertheless, the shortage resulted in one local importer being granted permission to import ducks, according to GLDA’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer Dr Dwight Walrond, who stressed, “We never issued a permit to that chain or for them to import duck meat”. Is there a distinction being made here between ducks and duck meat? Which begs the question, was the temporary clearance given for live ducks?
Whatever it was, and despite the questions raised, the discovery and seizure should have come as a shock to no one. There is, it appears, a hard-to-shake predisposition for foreign items, including food, among some Guyanese, who seem to prefer to purchase anything labelled ‘made in anywhere else but Guyana’. One only has to visit any local supermarket to be swamped by the evidence of imported meats, seafood, rice, sugar, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables, drinks, water, and plantain chips moving from the shelves to shoppers’ carts with amazing haste and fervour. It does not end there, even at the local markets such as Bourda and Stabroek one can find vendors’ stalls fully stocked with canned, boxed, bottled, and jarred produce that is readily available fresh just steps away. Therefore, while fresh local duck is without a doubt the optimum meat for the famous curry so many Guyanese favour, whoever imported ‘Quack on a Rack’ all the way from Culver Farms in Amish country, Northern Indiana, USA must have had some expectation that it would be sold here; indeed even after its expiry date.
While the report carried by this newspaper did not specifically mention the Government Analyst – Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD), which has been doing yeoman service in the area of keeping expired, as well as fake food and drugs off the local market, the entity does fall under the purview of the Ministry of Health, so one assumes it was involved. Although, Veterinary and Public Health Director in the ministry Dr Ozaye Dodson was quoted as saying that the seizure was done in accordance with the Animal Health Act and the Public Health Ordinance.
The mandate of the GA-FDD involves safety and trade issues related to food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices. It works to ensure that items to which the Food and Drug Act of 1971 and the Food and Drug Regulation 1977 apply are safe and can pass quality checks. Over the years, this department has worked under some severe constraints, but still managed to carry out its mandate.
A case in point involved containers of what appeared to be substandard food items that the GA-FDD had flagged in November last year. Inexplicably, it seemed, the Customs Administration released two containers to the importer even as the GA-FDD was engaging with the same importer over four other containers that had arrived from Canada with similar items. Among the problems were mislabelling, food that had been removed from the original packaging and expiry dates that were erased and then extended with a date marking machine. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency had later confirmed that it had not certified the four containers of assorted food items which were ultimately denied entry into Guyana.
More recently, despite being short on resources, the GA-FDD has been on the ball warning importers against attempts to import incorrect COVID-19 test kits and cautioning pharmacies against repackaging vitamins and other drugs for retail sale in Ziploc bags or envelopes which amounted to poor storage. It has also alerted consumers to mislabelled condensed milk and forced the recall of a substandard brand of hand sanitizer that did not have the required alcohol strength to render it effective.
Furthermore, the GA-FDD is the first such organisation in the Caribbean to be accredited as a Conformity Assessment Body to the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) 17020 and 17025 standards, an achievement which speaks volumes to the level excellence it has attained thus far. It is way past due for this entity to receive the resources commensurate with the work it performs and is expected to do. The government needs to move on this with some alacrity. A well-staffed, well-resourced GA-FDD would sharply reduce, if not curb completely, both the illegal importation of food and drugs and the lame duck businessmen waddling around importing.
