The Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) on Tuesday disposed of some of the substandard goods it confiscated from the market.
Speaking in an interview before transporting the goods to a damping site in Mwanza, MBS director general Davlin Chokazinga said the goods included expired groceries from shops around the region and cooking oil and rotten macadamia nuts confiscated from Sable Farming Company Limited last Thursday.
MBS confiscated bags of rotten macadamia nuts and uncertified and unrefined 1.6 litres of cooking oil in a factory housed inside Sable Farming Company Limited’s Macadamia Factory and Coffee Processing unit.
Chokazinga condemned the company for selling such oil saying it was hazardous to human health thereby exerting pressure on the country’s health system.
Said Chokazinga “when nuts get rotten they produce Aflatoxin which is hazardous to health. This practice is also bad for the country’s economy.”
He said the bureau has intensified market checks apart from its market checks every three months.
Chokazinga added that the owners of the confiscated goods will be taken to task through the company’s legal counsel.
Factory manager for Sable Farming Company Bennet Ndhlovu was quoted in the media admitting to have been operating under unhygienic conditions and commended the Bureau for ensuring that companies abide to the to the laws of the country.
The company has been selling the cooking oil to communities surrounding the area for close to 10 years.
