MBS fines supermarkets for non-compliance on standards
Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) on Monday fined three supermarkets in Mzuzu for selling expired products and failing to meet general standards in labelling of pre-packaged goods and foodstuffs.
MBS, in company with journalists, visited Mzuzu Shoprite, Mzuzu People’s Supersave, Chipiku Plus and Tutla’s Superstore to inspect if they comply with MBS standards.
But out of these, only Chipiku Plus did not have expired products on its shelves in addition to compliance with labelling standards.
The national standards body confiscated the expired and non-labelled products from the three supermarkets and fined each of them K59 000 payable on the spot.
Tutla’s Superstore manager Ishaq Tutla said the shop has improved in complying with MBS standards.
He said in previous exercises MBS would confiscate truckloads of expired products, which has not been the case now.
“I am very happy that MBS has not picked so many products from my shop. I have over 2 000 items, but it is only 10 to 15 items which have been confiscated. This is a very good improvement for my shop,” he said.
Mzuzu Peoples Supersave manager Hans Mazani regretted that MBS found expired products on the shelves of the shop.
He said his colleagues were preoccupied during the festive season such that they could not check for the expired products.
Atusaye Nyondo, manager for Mzuzu Shoprite where MBS confiscated a basketful of cheese with moulds, said the supermarket inspects expired products on a daily basis.
“But for the cheese, it is unfortunate that we did not label them with expiry dates,” he said.
MSB director general Davlin Chokazinga said the exercise was meant to create awareness to the residents in Mzuzu against selling and buying of sub-standard products.
He said during the exercise they confiscated 250 kilogrammes (kg) of products, which is lower than the figure in previous exercises.
“In our previous exercises, we could confiscate up to five tonnes of goods. But during this exercise, we only managed to impound 250 kg.
This simply shows that people are able to comply with our standards,” said Chokazinga.
