IMPHAL, August 31: A shop was found selling soft drinks past the “best before” date by people who had started collecting in front of the shop after a man complained of irritation in his mouth after consuming a `Frooti` fruit drink bought from the shop.
The incident happened around 3:30pm today at the shop of one Munna Saha near the Polo Ground Maning Auto parking (Statehood square).
The man after complaining of irritation soon left the place after the arrival of a team of the Consumer Club Manipur. The man told the Consumer Club team that he had bought the Frooti bottle (batch number: LC2 & manufacturing date: 08/06/2012) from the shop which was managed by one Puja, wife of Munna Saha, and after consuming about half of the bottle, he developed irritation in his throat.
He soon complained to the shop owner at which, the daughter of shop keeper took the bottle and threw away the remaining drink.
However, on checking the manufacture date of the bottle, he found it to be manufactured on June 8, 2012.
Hearing the commotion, passer-bys started collecting in front of the shop. Meanwhile, a team of the Consumer club led by its president Pangambam Arunkumar Singh arrived at the spot and checked the shop for more such items.
The team found many items way beyond the ‘best before’ dateline, which included food items including Frooti with manufacture date – 29/01/2013 & batch no. LA13; Fundaas: manufacture date – 28/01/2013; Jumpy: manufacture date – 12/2012 & batch no. ZAD 004; Bejois: manufacture date – 12/2012 & batch no. GH0329 etc among others were found inside the shop.
The items were collected by the inspecting team and further examined the collected items at its office. After having examined the collected items, it was decided to have a second visit at the same shop to check its stock at its godown.
The second visit was made at around 4:00 pm but when Puja was asked to reveal the location of their godown, she said that they had no godown.When the team asked her and to call her husband Munna Saha, she said that he was out of station. But the nearby shop owners said that Munna was seen in the morning at the shop.
Later, the team of the Consumers’ Club succeeded in finding the godown being located at Victory gali, Paona Bazaar.
The godown is approximately 30 feet deep of sizeable width where packaged food items were found kept in an unhygienic manner out of which the visiting team found several to be decayed and expired food items.
The Consumers’ Club Manipur further appealed to the concerned department in this regard to take up necessary legal action.