The FINANCIAL — As we researched, the main reason so much of the food in shops being found to be out-of-date is the contract agreed by distributor and store owner which doesn’t obligate the former to take back what has already been supplied even after the expiration date of the product. The worst side of this agreement is that the owner of the store has to somehow sell the product, even though it is outdated, in order not to find themselves at a loss.
Besides such obsolete contracts it’s very frequently the case when goods with a nearing date of expiry get written off – thereby distributors charge lower prices on them. The FINANCIAL contacted some of the distribution companies however they didn’t disclose how much price cuts were made on products (those near to expiring), in fact they said that such goods were greatly demanded by restaurants as well as the wide majority of retail stores so as to have higher profit margins.
As 23 year old Nini told us, small retail stores don’t take care of storing conditions of goods in summer as well as in winter time, sometimes they don’t even turn the fridges on; in the latter case claiming that it’s still cold outside.
“I twice got sick last year (2010) due to food poisoning; first it was from cake and then because of sour cream both of which were past their date of expiry which I had failed to notice when purchasing. Such cases of food poisoning have also occurred among my friends especially with chocolate, yogurt and also sausage,” complained Nini.
The distribution and logistics service of Kanti which is the distributor of roughly 50 types of products in Georgia since 1996 including “Parmalat”, “Русское море”, “Микоян”, “Divella”, “Nordmilch”, “Riston”, “Moccona”, “Фазенда”, “Vici”, “Witor’s” to name of few, stated that when the product is delivered to retail networks, it is the store owners’ responsibility to take care of it and sell it.
“We have such an agreement with all retailers in Georgia,” said Dodo Kavtaradze, the main accountant at Kanti to The FINANCIAL.
“In addition there are very frequently cases when production being close to its expiry date is sent off in bulk quantities by order to stores or restaurants, and then used whilst the product is still valid, after which we don’t take any responsibility,” claimed Kavtaradze.
Avoiding bad food on sale
There are a number of companies which cooperate with the national service of food safety (FVP) or themselves take back goods already delivered (which are past their date of expiry) and destroy them.
Schirnhofer, the meat products’ company in cooperation with FVP destroys those goods that have expired.
“Products which are not realized at retail stores we then take back and destroy. In addition we destroy defective products which can occur during packaging etc,” said a company representative from Vienna.
“In case such products are found in our network – we contact Tbilisi city hall food safety service in order to take the food and destroy it at the relevant place. There are also cases when storing conditions of our goods supplied are obsolete hence we take out such stuff too,” claimed Schirnhofer representatives.
As opposed to Schirnhofer, Nikora, which is one of the largest producers of various products – mainly meat, told us that they themselves destroy the food at specially designated areas in the company.
“We have studied demand on the market hence only a minimum of goods are returned or expire at Nikora,” said Giga Batkuashvili, PR Manager at Nikora.
The National service of Food safety, veterinary and plant protection is in charge of checking food is up to date at retail stores although regular inspection of all the stores is impossible they claim.
“Since 3 January 2011 we started control/inspection of food safety standards at producers as well as retailers at large. We already had inspection conducted in retail stores – the mechanism is the following – at first when we find a product passed its expiry date we warn the store owner and advise them to destroy it themselves; unless they comply with the first warning we fine them,” said Veriko Gulua, head of press relations at FVP.
“Those obsolete products, no matter whether imported or locally produced, are taken to a disposal site where we bury them whole,” she said.
“According to the law products on the market should be safe for consumption in terms of quality, an enterprise has the right to produce any quality product, but the producer on the one hand has to sign what the product contains and on the other hand the consumer has the right to know what sort of quality product he/she is purchasing.
Certain types of products which contain harmful substances are banned from import,” claimed Gulua from FVP.
The CDC (centre for disease control and prevention) estimates that food borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year, these figures do not include mild cases of food poisoning where patients did not seek medical care, or misdiagnosed cases. Most cases of food poisoning are associated with inadequately processed, home-canned foods.
The most serious and deadly form of food borne illness is botulism, a severe type of food poisoning caused by the ingestion of foods containing a potent toxin that affects the nervous system. Although incidence of the disease is low, the mortality rate is high. This toxin is destroyed in low-acid foods when they are processed at the correct time and temperature in pressure canners.
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