Thursday, March 28, 2024

Mufulira health inspectors seize bread worth K4.8 million

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Mufulira Municipal Council has seized  over 1, 200 loaves of bread worth K4.8 million from Chibuluma Bakery.

The bakery has allegedly not been operating in line with the provisions of the Food and Drugs and Public Health Acts.

Town Clerk, Charles Mwandila, and Council Director of Environment and Public Health services, Aliden Banda, confirmed the development to ZANIS in an interview.

The loaves of bread were seized yesterday after public health inspectors, who were accompanied by council police, inspected the bakery premises.

Mr Banda said the bakery was found operating under poor sanitary conditions while the workers have not been medically examined and certified at the hospital to handle food as per Public Health Act requirement.

He also added that the bakery contravened the Food and Drugs Act for the label on its packaging, which indicates that the bread made by the bakery was ‘healthy and nutritious’.

The packaging of bread was also not in compliance with the law because it did not indicate the expiry date for the bread.

In a related development, the Council has declared the seized imported canned food stuffs worth K25.4 million not safe for consumption at Mufulira Shoprite store.

The consignment of Gourmet Pringles, which were imported from Belgium, was seized from the store shelf after public health inspectors discovered that the can seals were bulging an indiction of bacteria contamination inside.

Director of Environment and Public Health Services, Alidon Banda, said samples of the assorted canned food stuff were collected and taken for analysis at the Food and Drugs Control laboratory in Lusaka, where it was established that the food was contaminated.

Mr Banda said the local authority seized the consignment manufactured by Procter and Gamble  of Belgium.

He stated that the product must be withdrawn from other stores as well because it was not fit for human consumption.

The director could not, however, indicate the medical complication that may arise from consuming the product nor the type of bacteria that has been detected.

He  said the health department e-mailed the manufacturer in Belgium to withdraw the product from the district but responded that the Pringles were suitable for consumption.

Procter and Gamble product Safety and Regulatory Affairs official, Katrin Schutte, said in an e- mail obtained by ZANIS that the bulging of the seal on the can was not an indicator of a bad product quality but was due to change in altitude and temperature.

Schutte explained that Pringles were manufactured at low altitude and filled with nitrogen gas when packing to prevent oxidation process.

The official said when Pringles were transported into countries that are of either higher altitude or temperature, the gas inside expands slightly and this causes the seal can to bulge.

38 COMMENTS

  1. Greetings to all my fellow blogger in the name of our saviour Jesus Christ.Iam not commenting of any topic today,iam emotionally affected by the death of that child who died after eating the poisonous wild roots.Chewe,Rashid,Baby C,supergal and many other bloggers lets not exchange strong words,but lets sit down and think of how we can help our beloved pipo in our beloved country to find some solutions on how to overcome this beast called poverty.Mind you we are One wheather Zambian,jordan,indian or white we’re one and Christ is the Head.I love you all bloggers.May our Good Lord bless you all.Amen! ^:)^^:)^^:)^

  2. Thanks to the inspectors for being fed of being bribed by noncompliant traders. People would have continued being poisoned by consuming contaminated foods with high toxins. Inspectors do not relent, do not take a softer line. Meanwhile, people who had afforded to eat bread during the period under review should have their livers checked for suspected poisoning.

  3. Food experts and chemical engineers please educate us. Can nitrogen gas expand to a level of bulging a metal can.i thought that gas is highly compressible like any other gas. iam not a food expert or a chemical enginner but i know that Zambia is 1000m above sea level. If you give me the altitude in belgium i can calculate the force that nitrogen would generate as a result of change in altitude using charles law and then determine if that force is sulficient to bulge a typical metal can. Students some of us are old now can you help please.

  4. #7 engines those are Pringles, so it’s not a metal top of the can but aluminium foil which is glued down. Expanding gas could easily do that – I think…

  5. That is really disgusting! In 2008 why is food being prepared in horrid conditions? Pliz! What can we do to help? :((

  6. Chibuluma Bakery of Mufulira has been very dirty for a very long time, before even Mwandila was TC. Their products are rubbish. What has happened could have done so long, long ago. The next we will hear is that they crossed someone’s path or supported the PF

  7. 10 and 11 lets put money together and open a bakery in Zambia.People are suffering because of lack of investment… 😕

  8. #8 Sony Ericsson Phiri
    I dint expect the pringles to expand more than nitrogen as a result of altitude.If that was the case then every cane from europe would have been bulging.In the last paragraph of the artical the official says its as a result of gas.i have seen alot of products filled with nitrogen to avoid oxidation and mosture forming, however they are usually filled at low pressure to account for altitude variations. This is why i believe for a gas to bulge a cane the presure must very be high and the cane must be vaccume tight.The only parameter that can make a gas produce that force is tempereture but it has to be significantly high above room temp(24C.)shoprite is airconditiond

  9. Those on #7 and #14 are my views as i said iam not a chemical engineer or a food expert and i therefore stand to be corrected. I would love to have a food expert educate me on this topic. Goodnyt!!

  10. 16. Baby C
    Dec 10th, 2008 at 5:13 pm Vote: 0 0 Where have they taken the seized bread??? to their homes i guess

    To their tutembas and gave some to nyama soya..

  11. Baby C i don’t like christmas cake, the raisins remind me of ntetes! I really like bread – can you send me some instead! Especially the one from melissas in kabulonga!! :d/

  12. Discovery of large quantities of breads simply confirms inconsistency by the council. I wont say congratulate the council for we do not know how many people have died owing to that state of the bakery. I want the government to transfer all town clerks because most of them have overstayed for them to work like professionals!

  13. #1. Now thats my MATTIE … am also still reeling from last night’s news on MUVI where a man showed his gun shot wounds after having been shot at his door step, by a cop who amazingly identified him but shot him anyway! Greece is on fire right now because of one boy who was shot by police, they are outraged! here its business as usual mate, unless it happens to one’s kin! Come on guys…

  14. #30 True but Zamabia is Zambia am afraid. Reason I will awlays have sweets to give to those people in the “village”. God I can not believe I said that.
    Ho Ho Ho.

  15. Engines #14 the other chap is correct. I have seen it many times in the U.S. I am a retired Chef the product is designed to do what it did. As to the bakery, I have bought bread there many times. When I was last there in near the beginning of the year I purchased bread there until on my last visit to the shop I saw rats running in and out of the shop and saw how truely nasty the place is. It needs to follow proper food cleanliness processes and eliminate the rats.

  16. “…samples of the assorted canned food stuff were collected and taken for analysis at the Food and Drugs Control laboratory in Lusaka, where it was established that the food was contaminated.”

    If the analysis showed contamination then it matters less whether or not there was bulging.Why can’t the manufacturer react to the results of analysis and ignore those initial observations by the council officials.

  17. Good job Town Clerk but you must ashamed a City like Mufulira without a lab? A City with over 200,000 people and does not have a lab it is a joke.

  18. Its realy a shame, these shops needs to be cheked more frequently for the better otherwise our lives are at risk. :)>-

  19. the food laws in zambia prohibit the sale of food whose receptacles are bulging, for those foods packed in air tight containers. this is simply because the bulging is caused by increase in the gas inside the container. now, there are two things here. its either microbial activity is causing this or a chemical reaction. bulging of gas caused by high temperature conditions is temporal, as the condition should normalise when temperatures are low. so the claim that the bulging pringles was due to high temperatures was a wrong claim

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