Praneeta Prakash 
The Consumer Council, in collaboration with the Suva City Council health inspectors, conducted a joint inspection at a major wholesaler, uncovering alarming food safety violations.
Chief Executive, Seema Shandil says following a tip off they conducted an inspection and discovered 115 instances of expired food products and 79 cases of damaged canned goods.
Shandil says most troubling was the discovery of a carton containing 48 cans of fish contaminated with maggots and cockroaches, raising serious health concerns.
“The council is unable to determine or provide a timeline for how long the wholesaler have been, you know, selling these dented cans or compromised products. However, during the inspection, dented cans were found inside the carton, as I said, labelled for a dairy shop, indicating that the issue was present at the time of the visit.”
Shandil says immediate action was taken to condemn the products.
“The items were condemned instantly, and, you know, the health inspectors are in the process of issuing an abatement notice to the wholesaler. As for Consumer Council, you know, we can’t even condemn or provide an abatement notice, but what we can do is issue warning letters, and that’s exactly what we did, followed by, as I said, the abatement notice that will be issued by the SCC health inspectors.”
The Consumer Council is urging consumers and small retailers to be vigilant.
Consumers have been urged to check for damaged packaging, avoid purchasing dented cans, and always verify expiration dates.
