Expired baby milk on sale

Feb 11, 2015

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has condemned the continued sale of expired powder baby milk, which they say is dangerous and poses a big health risk.

By Eddie Ssejjoba

The Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has condemned the continued sale of expired powder baby milk, which they say is dangerous and poses a big health risk.

UNBS officials together with the Police stormed a building in Kikuubo, a downtown trade hub and confiscated 270 tins of expired SMA baby milk that was on sale.

The tins, each weighing 900 grammes were recovered from Buko and Muwonge Toilet Empire shop.

Sylvia Kirabo, the UNBS deputy public relations officer, told journalists that they got a tip-off from concerned citizens that traders in shop number TE05 on JESCO building were selling expired milk after altering the manufacture and expiry dates.

She said they sent a surveillance team which confirmed the tip-off.

She said the expiry dates on the bottom of the tins indicated a different date and year, some showing 2015 while others indicated 2016, all different from the genuine manufacturing dates.

UNBS officials assisted by the Police opened all the boxes in the shop, marked them and took them away on their trucks.

Some traders, however, tried to resist but were restrained by the Police.

Sarah Nantongo, a senior surveillance officer, said some milk had expired on January 29 and 30 2015, but the dates had been altered using stickers to indicate 2016.

“I am hurt by this move because I am a mother. This milk is normally given to babies who cannot breastfeed for one reason or another. Selling expired stuff is very dangerous to our babies,” she said.
They said it would have been difficult for most consumers to realise that the dates had been altered.

The confiscated goods, according to Nantongo, would be handed over to the bureau legal team and the culprits prosecuted in courts of law.

The team also confiscated cartons of imported toilet tissues from the same shop whose standards and quality had not been tested and passed by UNBS.

Nantongo said the tissues imported from China were counterfeits whose standards were unknown and would therefore be dangerous to let them be used by the public.

“Several chemicals are always mixed and used in the manufacture of these tissue as a standards body, we need to first test these items in our chemistry and microbiologylabaratories to analyse whether they are fit to be used,” she said.

She said their team would continue to move to shops, supermarkets, and goods depots to ensure goods are fit and meet the standards in order to protect the consumers.

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