FDA crackdown on expired items an eyeopener

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The heat is on, even as the eat is on. In a concerning development, the Press Trust of India news agency stated that the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) busted an interstate racket involved in re-circulating expired and damaged food items back into the commercial market. The FDA seized illegal food stock worth over Rs 52 lakh in raids at establishments in Bhiwandi in Thane district.

They suspended the food safety licence of a warehouse after finding 1.5 tonnes of unbilled, expired food items worth RS 1.67 lakh. The police intercepted an interstate truck carrying 1,200 kg of expired flour and branded products worth Rs 5.18 lakh without any valid invoices.

This followed raids at eight establishments in Bhiwandi that yielded expired stock. There are several technicalities in the modus operandi of this racket, including the involvement of large e-commerce and logistics firms hiring unauthorised scrap agencies. Chemicals are used to erase original expiry dates; the real date is obscured and products are resold at discounted rates.

This is at a high level and the FDA needs to tackle this, which it claims to be doing. At the layperson/consumer level one has to look at labels very carefully. At times, a paper is stuck onto a label to hide the expiry date. At other times, the date is hidden through ink or erased in some way. Take it to the owner or manager if buying physically. It may not give results but you can at least point out that you have seen through the deception and moreover saved yourself from consuming expired products.