The Lusaka City Council has with immediate effect closed all the three Pizza Hut outlets in Lusaka for using expired ingredients in food production.
The closure follows the inspection conducted by a team of Public Health Inspectors from LCC on 19th July 2018.
LCC Spokesperson George Sichimba said the inspection revealed that Pizza Hut was in possession of expired food products at their premises and evidence of use of expired food stuffs and ingredients in food production.
Mr Sichimba said Pizza Hut officials also gave false and misleading information to authorised officers and also attempted to obstruct them from inspecting the distribution point.
“In one of the outlets, workers went to an extent of concealing expired food items and ingredients in the ceiling of the shop. The above mentioned findings contravene the provisions of Food and Drugs Act Cap 303, Section 4,6 and Section 24(3)(4) of the Laws of Zambia,” he said.
Mr Sichimba said Pizza Hut has been given 24 hours in which to show cause why legal action should not be taken against them for put the lives of consumers at risk.
He said the three Pizza Hut outlets closed are located at Kabulonga Shopping Complex, Cosmopolitan Mall and East Park Mall.
“The Council also seized all the expired food stuffs and ingredients which included Hot Jalapeno slices, Mild piquante peppers diced, Indulgent choc sauce and Regular chip scoops,” he said.
“Others were Vegi wash, Halaal peri peri sauce, Halaal sweet chili sauce, Halaal dough and Halaal Macon sliced. The local authority wishes unscrupulous business houses to think twice about their actions as their days are numbered as the Council now has a reasonable number of Public Health Inspectors to do the job.”
He added, “The council has also advised consumers to develop a habit of checking for expired dates before buying food items. Any food items that are expired or suspected to be in questionable state must be immediately reported to Council for further investigations.”
They are using expired items because those are all imported…..they lazy corrupt lungu is on a campain trail in chipata instead of creating the 500, 000 jobs he promised by seeing to it that such places use all local products…..
Better they just stick to Nshima and leave Pizza to Italians. They do it better because for them it’s more than just a trade – it means national pride, tradition and reputation.
I basically only get my Pizza from the Italian and not from Pakistani, Indian or Chinese owners .
Lusakatimes in the interest of all the readers on here, can you can this Sharon guy.
Welcome here to learn news and not someone spamming provactively with the intent of self satisfaction. There are people like jay jay, Mushota, MMD bootlicker that are controversial but do not spam your beautiful site.
The Sharon guy degrades everything you stand for and will make this site unworthy to comment on.
Act now and ban him. That’s not a female to start with.
Oscar Miyanda
Sharon is an old finished nurse from UTH.
Very dul.l and knows nothing else but tribal attacks…
That’s why you can’t progress as a person. You believe everything must be solved by the president.
What’s the presidents job ? Campaigning and corruption ?
Oh yeah?! Expired labels on prepared pizza? Just rise and work! Target every food company across filth LSK.
Don’t tire, work the he’ll hard n don’t just sit in your offices.
Good move. Nasty food spiking cholesterol and blood pressure in gullible Zambians who think eating fast food is living well.
This is the same council that has failed to manage the litter problem. The same council that is busy buying luxury SUVs while the city and townships lack dustbins, the same council that has failed to put street signs on some of the more dangerous roads resulting in car accidents almost on a daily basis. What proper madness is this?
Lazy corrupt HH who sold our companies at a give away price with kickbacks and inside trading deals, got rich quickly and took the money to tax havens (to which he has agreed that nothing is wrong with that) and went on a shopping spree buying land from his tribal chiefs (with kickbacks of course – 1,000 hectares of land in Namwala alone) and then built a house for one woman on the bench and now wants to sell Zambia! Do you think Zambia will elect him? Hell NO!
Good job. But make sure you fine them heavily, and prison time for hiding expired ingredients in the ceiling. Do not just warn, or talk. ACTION is what people respect. Strict enforcement, heavy fines and prison time–that’s the language law breakers understand, and it deters others from doing the same. Again good job LCC. Keep it up.
My friend you are very useless i bet you don’t even have a job yourself. why blame the president for others misfortune and you don’t have respect for the president mind you big brother is watching. Figure of Speech ‘Don’t blame others for your cheating wife’.
Some of these companies, you wonder if they are linked to the brand because when you do a quick search there is nothing linking headquarters to branches or franchises in Zambia.
Pizza is one of the simplest junk foods to prepare, it all depends on the freshness of sauces and toppings….I hope the govt is not sleeping on this one and has let companies like this import pizza bases from RSA.
Anyway I wouldn’t encourage people to eat this rubbish…
That is the case , they are let to import everything yet those products can be made in Zambia.
These ministers are too lazy. They expect foringners to do all the work. They can direct farmers and local factories to supply such ingredients…
There are companies in the UK that make solely pizza bases I am talking massive factories with conveyor belt type yeast raising and oven belts ….massive cold rooms for storage. This is where employment is created but with unreliable Zesco and weak govt policy its too risky to invest in such massive factories.
With GRZ direction such factories can be created to use solar power ……this is where full employment is started , by plugging the small holes like making all restaurants use local products…..if there is no local substitute it is the responsibility of GRZ to see to it that such a substitute is made in Zambia…..but in our case we have all GRZ looking for tenders and yapping about it is the responsibility of the private sector. This is wrong….. GRZ is supposed to actively direct and nature our private sector to plug these import holes…
Good one LCC. Hardly surprising though because when it comes to making money, humans will always cheat if a chance to it get away with it exists. It doesn’t matter what religion people observe, this is a universal rule of thumb. Without govt, people will always do wrong in a money economy.
The only reason pizza hut are using expired products is because the ingredients they use are imported from S.A…..who grows jalapenos in Zambia ? Who makes pizza base source ? Yet all these can and should be produced loccaly with active guidance from GRZ
There is a huge markup in Pizza…if raw material is sourced cheaply…if I was the council I would dig deeper into the operations of this firm if they are cutting corners here they are prepared to take risks elsewhere.
I feel some of these so called investors need to checked as they simply come for the 5 year tax parachute…they don’t invest in any real estate for factories or brand-new machinery, they just rent out in malls buy expired stuff and start ripping off people then after 5 years they will close shop re-brand….what happened to VODAFONE; what’s the update on that?
Africans can sell out their countries very easily especially for jobs and money. Few examples Mugabe was many times caught sleeping at important meetings, yet his spokesperson was always saying, he was not sleeping but resting his eyes. In Congo, people have allowed to be ruled by a constitutionally illegitimate president. In Zambia, mining companies steal and pollute the environment, yet Zambian mine managers defend all this including tax avoidance. Lastly, i also doubt the franchises in Zambia, for example KFC in Kitwe has very no standards and it is very filthy and not anything like the real thing. ACC please wake up and do something.
I doubt these are even legitimate Franchises as KFC and McDonald’s franchises are the most costly ones …for KFC you need a minimum of £1 million investment, if you are going to invest such a huge amount in a business I doubt you will let standards drop and KFC will not let you relax. Its important to note from a business point of view that McDonald’s and KFC don’t sell burgers they are real estates agents and they are the biggest estate agents in US and the Europe…a franchisee pays rent by selling their food as rent.
KFC is inherently filthy. How about their plastic chickens? Be careful with all fast food outlets. Zambia will soon have more diabetic patients than its health system can handle just because we want junk food
I agree that more outlets should be thoroughly inspected to protect our health. KFC in Kabulonga is not regularly cleaned for instance. The handwashing area is not the cleanest and tables are not routinely wiped clean after clients leave. The lettuce in burgers and wraps is not always fresh. There’s need for managers to closely supervise their workers to avoid turning eating places into disease breeding grounds.
Yet you still go there with your children and do not complain about it in the letter section of Times or Daily Mail.
Why is my post being blocked?
KFC were caught reselling discarded chicken in Joburg three years ago. But like jay jay says people still go there
**********› Food-safety › K…
KFC chicken scandal: Braamfontein owner under fire | Health24
Food-safety › K..**************
Why is my post being blocked?
KFC were caught reselling discarded chicken in Joburg three years ago. But like jay jay says people still go there
› Food-safety › K…
The problem I see here is with the inspectors. They promise to visit places instead of going there like a thief(quoting Jesus-unexpected). No wonder they had time to hide things in the roof. For inspectors, there is NO right time to pounce and surprises workout better. One day I found expired food on the shelf and I just went to the supervisor of the shop who promptly removed the items. You do not have to run to the press because to error is human but in the case of Pizza hut, it was intentional. Cage the in charge!
What makes you think that the manager was not aware and he didn’t relay this issue to top management?
When you go to the press or review website that’s when they get the message even the CEO sees it and takes notice then invest in the business ie proper stocktaking software ….you are a customer know your statutory rights.
Its laughable the amount of nasty reviews guests have left about Zambian motels on review websites and some owners have not bothered or ignored them then wondered why people from abroad stopped booking or dining….owners do not know that first time foreign customers check these websites to prepare their trip to Zambia.
At No. 4 , ” Surprised” above. If you are talking about ” KFC” in Kitwe, it could be the one that I also saw and was surprised at it’s existence until I went up close and read : KFC – KITWE Fried Chicken”!!
The major shareholders in these tuntemba are the same chaps in goverment, lazy things
Yes, and he will NEVER be president!
Comment:I’ve warned that Transitional food is the best but what i can see from a number of foolish bloggers here is Government to blame. You are just killing yourselves you stupid *****s.
why do you *****s politicize everything being done for the betterment of the citizen
The mentioned outlets gonna be fully operational come Monday.
Its better to close such places and council shouldn’t forget on the street vendors as well they have started by hungry liin zambeef and at city clothing factory after 17:00hrs please take action on this one as well .
America and other developed countries make money from such criminality. If Zambia wants to develop this is one easy way of getting money into Govt coffers. South Africa fined one of the German banks after it was discovered that they worked agaist established financial regulations. What the GRZ should be doing for these companies taking advantage of Africans is check their bank accounts and claim an certain percentage for the Govt to improve on inspections and law enforcement.
Kikiki,the shallow thinking of you Tongas,even people committing crime of selling expired foods,its President Lungu to blame ,your hatred shows how bad this tribe is.The extent of your hatred is only by Satanists.
You can imagine, Tribe. Ebuloshi uyu. 100% correct!!!
Most of the food we eat isn’t safe, sometimes even home made meals aren’t safe especially if you’re married to an insecure wife she will always feed you on all sorts of concoctions that include her menses. I didn’t imagine that even Hungry Lion foods could be found with faecal matter. Anyway let’s just eat, after all it’s filthy that fattens the pig
I strongly support the above submission thatin the interest of goodwill for LT, this Sharon character must be blocked. Totallly off the mark! Extremely irritating and LT should Better rise to the occasion and protect this platform from the spam
Why single out Sharon?? This LT report is about LCC closing down Pizza Hut yet the first comment is about Spaka attacking President Lungu in unrelated matters. It’s free speech, Let Sharon express herself!!!
Dying slowly with these expired food stuffs. Surprising Zambian workers killing their friends in the interest of job protection. What a shame!!
The Health Department should continue to regulate all institutions that deal with public health, indirectly or directly. What boggles the mind is that we have mini markets going up in suburbs like Kabulonga, Woodlands, Ibex Hill rtf with no regulation or oversight. There are no toilets or running water close to these make shift markets, so one wonders how anything can be kept contamination free. There is no one stopping this growing scourge. There will only be an exaggerated response when some disease breaks out. Let our local government laws be implemented without fear or favour and we will be well on our way to ensuring that all our residents stay healthy!
So, we should be getting our money back by showing receipts for that rubbish.. As well as the change the delivery drivers never come back with..