Supermarket owner fined for tampering with expiration dates

A Chinese supermarket owner, who operates on the East Coast of Demerara, was on Monday fined $60,000 when he appeared before the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, to answer to three charges of tampering with food items.
Yuhai Lin of Lin Supermarket admitted he repackaged foods under insanitary conditions, sold expired products and tampered with the labels of milk products. Lin was fined $60,000 for the three offences.

Criminal proceedings were instituted against the proprietor in accordance with the laws of Guyana – Food and Drug Act of 1971, Chapter 34:03, Section 35.
Under this law, Part II (5), it states: “any person who sells an article of food that is unfit for human consumption or was manufactured, prepared, packaged or stored under the unsanitary condition is guilty of an offence”.
Part II (6) of the Act went on to outline that: “Any person who labels, packages, treats, processes, sells or advertises any food in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character, value, quality, composition, merit or safety is guilty of an offence.”
Head of the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD), Marlon Cole told Guyana Times that he hoped this would be a warning to other businesses who may be involved in illegal repackaging and tampering.
The owner of the embattled supermarket was just last month busted during an inspection exercise on the East Coast of Demerara, on October 5.
According to the GA-FDD, the proprietor of the supermarket, which was only recently established, was discovered to be repackaging foods under insanitary conditions, selling expired foods and also tampering with expiration dates. He was found to be extending the date mark on condensed milk products.
The Department disclosed that 51 395-gram tins of condensed milk which had the date marks tampered with were seized and removed from the premises. These tins just had the manufacture date and the expiry date, whereas those products that were not tampered with carried a barcode along with the manufacture and expiry dates.
The GA-FDD is calling on consumers to pay closer attention to the expiry dates on products being sold.
“Consumers are again asked to ensure that all items of food have a label, is English translated and to ensure the dates are closely examined and not altered or tampered with,” the Department warned.