Kathmandu, September 6
Serious negligence has been found in the relief supplies being prepared for distribution to victims of the Bhotekoshi floods. Food items including rice, flour, puffed rice and chips that were being prepared for delivery as relief were found to have expired and to be unfit for consumption.
The finding was made during a surprise inspection conducted at five storage and monitoring sites in Kathmandu by a joint team from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control and the Food Technology and Quality Control Division Office, Kathmandu.
The inspection, carried out under the Food Hygiene and Quality Act 2081, found expired food items stored at locations ranging from government offices to a police training centre. The inspection team found irregularities particularly in relief supplies stored at the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction in Babarmahal, the Police Training Centre in Samakhusi and Radha Soami Satsang.
According to Dr Bal Kumari Sharma, senior food research officer at the department, expired items had been kept alongside usable goods at these locations where relief supplies were being collected and packaged for distribution. At the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction in Babarmahal, the team found expired “Current Chips” produced by Yashoda Foods Pvt Ltd of Rupandehi and “Bhuja” produced by Giridhari Food Products of Butwal among the items being prepared for relief packages.
The inspection team stopped 30 packets of Current Chips and 21 sacks of Bhuja from being distributed, placed them in a separate “expired zone”, and initiated further action. Similarly, at the Police Training Centre in Samakhusi, two packets containing 18 pieces of Chocofan and one five-kilogram packet of Chakki flour were found to have expired.
The team also found 59 packets of “All in One” dalmoth with only two days remaining before their expiry date. The department barred the distribution of both the expired items and the dalmoth nearing its expiry date and ordered them to be placed in the expired zone.
During an inspection at Radha Soami Satsang in Samakhusi, the team also found a 25-kilogram sack of Jayshree parboiled rice that had expired. The department said it had initiated action because distributing expired food as relief in such a sensitive humanitarian situation could seriously affect the health of already vulnerable and flood-affected people.
