By: Draxon Maloya.
Lilongwe, Malawi. (News of The South) – The Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) has come out in the open and threatened to take to task manufacturers of the substandard food materials which are flooding the country’s markets if the Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) officials continue being negligent.
The MBS, Chief Executive Officer John Kapito was reacting in relation to the recall of Malawi’s major beverage manufacturer Castel Malawi Limited’s product Sobo Orange Squash from the shelve of some of the country’s leading super markets.
While faulting MBS for allegedly failing to enforce standards of the product before filling the shelves on the market he said recalling the product twice within six months leads to consumer loss of trust not in only the product but the bureau as well.
John Kapito -CAMA boss
“We cannot stand aside and watch at MBS sleep on their job, we shall make sure that all the Sobo products on the market have been sent for certification outside the country because we feel there is no reason to wait for MBS who seem not to care whether consumable products needs to meet the standards first,” Kapito said.
Kapito further said the country’s bureau of standards has failed big time to maintain public trust on the way it conduct itself of late, considering an influx and flooding of uncertified consumable products on the market.
After an outcry from the consumers that some brands of Sobo Orange Squash has the high concentration of unpermitted tartazine food additive the Malawi Bureau of Standards came in and issued a temporary ban on the product from the market.
Yesterday afternoon. MBS ordered Castel to withdraw defected Sobo Orange Squashes by March 29 2019 failure to comply the bureau shall confiscate the product from the market at the manufactures expense, apart from withdrawing the permit that was issued on Sobo Orange Squash in line with MBS Act of 2012.
The MBS deputy director general Willy Muyira told the journalists in Blantyre that the laboratory results on tests conducted on Sobo Orange Squash done within the first quarter of 2019 showed that apart from visible sedimentation non-conformity, other physical, chemical and microbiological parameters tested show compliance with MS 177-Specification.
In August 2018, the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) fined Castel Mk35.4 million ($47 837.84)for supplying the market with products likely to cause harm to consumers.
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