Jakarta, July 16 (ANTARA) - Many traders try to take advantage of the high food consumption during and post Ramadhan fasting month by selling illegally trademarked products, and expired foods and beverages on the market.
In order to protect people from consuming expired goods, government agencies like trade and industry services as well as the Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) will conduct market inspections.
This is in line with the call made by the Indonesian Consumer Institute Foundation (YLKI). "We are calling on relevant services and agencies to increase supervision to guarantee that food items released into the market are safe and secure for public consumption," said Chairman of YLKI for West Sumatra Syaharman Zanhar earlier on the occasion.
Besides checking on expired goods, the government must also ensure the normal availability of food stocks and basic necessities needed by consumers during the holy month of Ramadhan that¿s expected to start next Friday or Saturday.
For this purpose, the government will hold a meeting this week to discuss and evaluate the availability of food stocks during the fasting month. "The evaluation of food stocks will be done by the coordinating ministers," remarked Agriculture minister Suswono at the Presidential Palace last week.
"So far we have no problems, but we will evaluate it next week at a coordination meeting on economic affairs," he asserted. The government will evaluate the availability of three commodities: rice, meat (beef and chicken) and sugar.
Acting Director General for Agricultural Product Processing and Marketing Banun Harpini also guaranteed that there wasn¿t any need for the Indonesian people to worry about the availability of food stocks during the fasting month and Lebaran (post-fasting festivities).
However, what is important according to the YLKI is that people should be cautioned against the sale of expired and decayed foods. Therefore, the consumer institute has urged all relevant agencies to increase their supervision over food products even as the fasting month of Ramadhan fast approaches.
Syaharman Zanhar of the YLKI for West Sumatra said that the demand for different types of products has increased drastically in the run-up to fasting month.
He said that the increasing demand could be taken advantage of by irresponsible traders who put up sub-standard products on the market. "Therefore, supervision should be tightened," he hoped.
He mentioned that among the relevant agencies to be assigned this task were Food and Drug Supervision Agency (BPOM) and the industrial and trade services.
Syaharman said that it was not impossible for irresponsible parties to take advantage of the holy month and sell expired goods, non standard foods and unregistered products.
The YLKI also called on relevant agencies to supervise the sale of goods that are prepared for consumption during the breaking of the fast, so that these food items are free from chemical substances like formaldehyde and borax.
The BPOM had earlier acknowledged that it had received many public complaints about foods suspected to have hazardous contents, particularly those from the cottage industries.
"As of June 2012, we have received 4,105 complaints," confirmed Hendri Siswandi, the legal affairs and public relations head of BPOM recently. In addition, Hendri called on the people to be careful while selecting food products.
He said that consumers who found suspicious products were requested to report them to the BPOM. "After all, producers are quite aggressive in promoting their products. Thus, consumers must be equally smart while selecting foods," he replied.
More than 90 percent of Indonesia¿s population of 237.6 million comprised of Muslims.
Earlier governor of South Kalimantan Rudy Ariffin had urged the BPOM to launch an intensive inspection of food products and drugs sold over the counter. "The circulation of drugs and foods is a cause for concern," the governor had explained.
He had said that the sale of drugs and food must be done through a procedure and mechanism based on the law. "Unchecked sales are quite dangerous and may harm the survival of the younger generation," he¿d added.
In reality, the BPOM has and is planning to conduct raids over expired goods throughout the country during Ramadhan.
In Lampung province, Sumatra, the BPOM has plans to launch the raids in a number of supermarkets and traditional markets. "In the first week of Ramadhan, the BPOM service in Bandarlampung (capital of Lampung province) will launch raids over food products that have expired and been damaged," said BPOM Bandarlampung Spokesman Hotna Panjaitan.
In South Sumatra province, the regional government has recently increased its supervision over food and beverage products. This was started by the regional government of Musi Rawas District South Sumara.
"We are now increasing our supervision and monitoring of the market. This is because transactions on basic necessities during the fasting month increase and expired goods can be sold in the market," said Industry Service Head of Musi Rawas EC Priskodesi.
Similar operations have begun even at the West Sulawesi province. The Trade and Industry Service has in the past several days kept a watch over the circulation of expired foods and beverages.
"The local government is increasing its supervision and tightening control over errant traders who deliberately put their expired products on the market during the fasting month," said H.Samiran, the chief of the industry service in Mamuju, capital of West Sulawesi province.
The local government has also formed a team for inspection of price control to monitor the price fluctuation of basic commodities. The team involves officials from the agricultural service, the plantation service, the maritime affairs and fisheries service and the food resilience agency.
In the meantime, a joint team of inspection from Morotai Island District, North Maluku province has confiscated thousands of food and beverage products sold under irregular trademarks.
Local Industry Service Head Yakub Kurung added that the confiscated products had expired since 2011.
Yakub Kurung further divulged that the joint team had found many expired foods circulating in the market such as snacks, light drinks and candies. "We also discovered the sale of expired canned milk and sweets," he concluded.
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(T.A014/INE/O001) 16-07-2012 14:25: |
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