Expired Tunnock’s caramel chocolate bars being sold – GA-FDD

The Government Analyst- Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) is placing consumers and retailers on high alert that some of the Tunnock’s caramel wafer chocolate bars in circulation have expired since March 31, 2016, but they are still being sold by businesses.

According to the Department, customers are being intentionally deceived as the shelf life of this product is being “deliberately and fraudulently extended”, by it being removed from its original packaging and placed in a translucent package containing eight bars. A sticker is then attached bearing the extended expiration date of February 28, 2017.

This matter was brought to light due to the numerous complaints the GA-FDD received from the public, implicating a particular importer.

The GA-FDD said that during a visit to the business entity on June 22, 2016, 12 cases of this product (12 cases x 20 packs x 8pcs x 80g) were confiscated and removed from the premises.

With support from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), legal action is being initiated against this importer, the Food and Drug Department outlined.

Meanwhile, another 24 packs of the expired product were seized and removed from several locations in Georgetown.

At a recently-hosted National Food Safety and Control Committee meeting on July 12, 2016, the Department informed many officers (inspectors) of this situation and it is expected that similar actions would be taken against other importers of this expired product in the remote regions.

Additionally, the Department is alerting consumers about Tunnock’s eight-pack caramel bars in their original packaging that bears barcode #: 5010975070095. According to the GA-FDD, the expiry date has been erased and a sticker with a new expiry date (two years past the original: 14/12/2017) is neatly laid over the area where the original expiry date was.

The Food and Drug Department said it was in communication with Allan Burnett, Export Manager of Thomas Tunnock’s Limited of 34 Old Mill Road, Uddingston, Glasgow, who via a letter informed the GA-FDD that the eight-bar Tunnock’s caramel pack is made exclusively for the Canadian market, whereas the four-bar caramel pack is made for the US and Guyana markets.

The Department is advising consumers to “purchase only sealed four-bar packs of Tunnock’s caramel and [we] will continue to work with all stakeholders, importers, the legal system and the general public to ensure that products traded on our local market are safe and of the requisite composition and quality”.

The GA-FDD is also calling on all importers to have in their possession “an original Free Sale Certificate/Health Certificate to facilitate their products’ entry into Guyana, since this is our first line of defence against substandard products being supplied and / or released on our local market.”