THE Livingstone City Council has confiscated and disposed off 129 cases of expired soft drinks from the Livingstone Institute of Business and Engineering Studies (LIBES).
Livingstone City council Public Relations Officer Charity Chaiwila said the local authority confiscated the drinks after tipped off by members of the public.
Ms Chaiwila said in an interview that the council’s public health inspectorate team quickly conducted inspections of the storage facility at LIBES to ascertain the quality of the soft drinks that were being offered for sale to the lecturers and students on February 16, 2016.
Ms Chaiwila said during the inspection, it was discovered that 129 cases of 500mls Coca-Cola had expired on January 29, 2016.
“LIBES is claiming that the drinks were left by the Examination Council of Zambia (ECZ) markers who gave excess drinks to LIBES management.
“But LIBES management kept the drinks until they expired and later started selling them to the Lecturers and students.
“We also found cases of Fanta soft drinks which will expire on 3rd March, cases of Sprite which will expire on 19th February as well as 3 cases of Five Roses tea bags that expired onJanuary 19, 2016,”she said.
She said the expired drinks were disposed off on February 17, 2016, by emptying the content.
“As the local authority, we advise that in an event were you or your partners engage in the sale of such prodcuts, ensure that you regularly check on the date marking and the same is consumed within the shelf life in line with the provisions of the food and drug act CAP 303 of the laws of Zambia,” she said.
Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) Southern Province Investigator Matyola Chipapa said his institution was saddened that an institution like LIBES could engage in practices of selling expired products.
“It is sad to mention that an institution like LIBES could engage in such and it leaves much to be desired in terms of management. We are talking of people who know so well the effects of consuming expired products and the least the commission expects is the institution to engage in such things.
“We just hope that this is the last time they are doing that and if it was an oversight, then they need to be proactive and check for any product that they want to sell and if this happens again, we will know that they did it deliberately,” Mr Chipapa said.
And when contacted LIBES Principal Thomas Kalantiya said he couldn’t comment on the matter as he was not in the office but directed all queries to his Finance Manager whose mobile line went unanswered.
