Hawks seize expired food items worth millions

The Hawks’ commercial crime unit, in conjunction with visible policing officers, environmental health service inspectors, and home affairs department immigration officers, conducted successful disruptive operations in three areas alleged to be selling expired goods to their respective communities, Captain Philani Nkwalase said.

A request to probe the matter was submitted to the Hawks’ commercial crime unit. The involvement of the immigration officers and environmental health service inspectors from the local and district municipalities was significant in order to ensure compliance, he said.

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On Friday, an operation was conducted in Warrenton where five shops were raided. Expired goods worth R500,000 were seized in four of the five shops visited. Particularly shops without any documentation showing removal plans and compliance.

A similar operation was earlier conducted in Pampierstad on January 25 with health inspectors of the Phokwane municipality and immigration officials. Nine shops were visited and expired goods to the value of over R1.2 million were confiscated and handed over to the health inspectors for disposal.

Then in Hartswater, on February 27, four shops were raided and expired goods to the value of R1.2 million were confiscated and handed over to the health inspectors for disposal.

During these three separate raids a total of over 2.9 million expired goods were seized. It was worth noting that not all shops were visited due to the few health inspectors available for the raids.

“We are therefore pleading to the public to exercise vigilance when buying groceries, particularly for infants. We will, however, continue to roll-out this operation within the province to ensure that our communities are given value service for their money. No charges were laid against the shop owners pending the report from environmental health service inspectors,” Nkwalase said.