These huge stocks of outdated food items were confiscated in an unbelievably large number of raids on outlets (31,000) that saw some 60 closed temporarily as punishment.
A quarter of the destroyed stocks were fresh fruits and vegetables. The health department of the municipality said in March this year that its inspectors run random quality checks, on average, on 23 tonnes of frozen meat and four tonnes each of local and imported fish stocks daily.
Checks are carried out on livestock in the abattoirs as well on a daily basis to closely monitor the quality of fresh meat supplied to the local market.
Sources say that with the rise in population which has more than doubled in the past nine years to 1.84 million, and an equally high proliferation in retail and wholesale outlets in the country, violations of the law in the form of sale of expired food products are increasing.
Statistics seem to support such suspicions as only 156 tonnes of outdated food were destroyed by the same municipality in November 10 years ago, in 2002, with the average for the year being 1,872 tonnes (based on the November figure) — less than half of the 2012 total.
The practice of manipulating expiration dates on food products’ packaging is so rampant that nine people were arrested — recently in a rare swoop by law-enforcement officials — for allegedly putting new expiration dates on outdated products.
And imagine that these huge stocks were to be supplied to retail outlets for sale to hapless consumers!
“With the massive expansion of the market and the population, it isn’t really easy to keep a track on the quality of food products that are on sale,” suggests public representative, Mohamed Hamood Al Shafi, a member of the Central Municipal Council (CMC).
“What we, therefore, need is a stringent law to deal with such violations because they have a direct bearing on people’s health.”
The Consumer Protection Law (No. 8 of 2008) that prescribes two-year jail and fines of up to QR1 million for violations of its provisions regarding doctoring expiration dates, needs to be amended, said Al Shafi. “We must make it more stringent and deterring.”
He also suggested that the Consumer Protection Department (CPD) at the Ministry of Business and Trade be turned into an autonomous agency, armed with more powers so it could act tough on violators.
Al Shafi said he didn’t think there was any need of a consumer court where violators could be tried. “I think if we change the existing law, the situation would improve.”
But according to lawyer Dr Saud Al Azba, there aren’t many cases of violations of the consumer protection law, particularly with regard to alleged tampering of use-by dates of consumer goods, in the local courts. “Such cases are rare,” he said.
Sources say not many such violations are reported to law-enforcement agencies for thorough investigations so violators could be tried.
Most violators are punished by civic health or CPD inspectors who have judicial powers.
Most violators, thus, walk away with lighter punishment — a fine of a few thousand riyals, or sometimes the erring outlets are closed for a month, say sources.
What is required is that more and more such violations are referred to law-enforcement agencies and the state prosecution for action, say consumer rights activists who maintain the time has come when violations of this nature are taken seriously and the law is invoked.
All food products are required by the Qatari law to be labelled for expiration in Arabic and English.
The sticker system should be done away with and expiration dates must be printed in indelible ink directly on the packaging of a product to help avoid tampering, say activists.
