Peregraf - Sangar Salar
Expired food, whether smuggled in or imported “legally”, threatens people's lives each and every day in the Kurdistan Region.
Around 1000 tons were destroyed by the government last year, while the rest were sold to people before mayorship teams detected them.
Peregraf learnt that in the provinces of Sulaimaniya, Duhok and Erbil, 925 tons of food were destroyed owing to their expiration.
The state alone is a danger to people's health, taking them through a dangerous path.
The Health Protection Department director, Rizgar Ali, spoke to Peregraf, “It's dangerous for people, but we cannot say expired food causes cancer.”
He urges people to examine the expiry date on their food items and keep them in a hygienic environment.
Salaimniyah has a fair share of expired produce, with 538 tons, increasing by 100 tons since 2017.
Sulaimaniyah Quality Control director, Othman Abubakir, said they have six border crossings under control, “However, we cannot control smuggled goods.”
Meanwhile, he said, some food products are delivered from Basra and other southern provinces of Iraq into Sulaimaniyah without any quality checks.
They have asked their superiors to prepare for further checks on such items.
Along with the destroyed items, Abubakir said, 300 tons of food have been returned to Iran as they were expired, only through Bashmakh crossing.
He stressed that private companies conduct quality checks with up-to-date equipment.
MP Abdulrahman Ali, the rapporteur of Consumer Rights Protection Committee monitoring the commission that is tasked with supervising and checking the private companies that conduct quality checks said to be “unaware of the subject, and not consulted by the private companies”.
Duhok comes next with 200 tons of expired food in 2018, and Erbil with 188 tons.
Sulaimaniyah mayorship teams destroy expired food. Photo: Mayorship website
Ali said, “There 40 to 50 marginal border crossings where unchecked goods are imported.”
He also said punitive measures are old and do not prevent traders from importing further items even when they have been sanctioned.
In the three provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Erbil and Duhok, shops and minimarkets have been charged with financial penalties for 863 million Dinars, most of them in Sulaimaniyah and the least in Duhok. Director of the Trade Auditing in Sulaimaniyah, Soran Abdul-Ghafour, told Peregraf, “Our teams are conducting searches through markets and seize expired items daily.”
Last year, 526 shops were closed, 243 in Sulaimaniyah, 159 in Duhok and 124 in Erbil, due to selling expired food.
An official from Sulaimaniyah mayorship says items are imported illegally as well. However, he said, the legal exports are suitable to use, but some of them expired soon after they reached the markets.
He said the parliament should protect the rights of consumers through the law.
Although procedures increase, the expired items flow in. There is no law decreed in parliament to protect the rights of the consumers, although there is a designated committee for that purpose.
A health official, Rizgar, says they have set up a checkpoint at border crossings to monitor incoming medicines, whether from abroad or from Iraq, “Items can be of good quality but they can be used wrongly and this can affect peoples health.”