PHNOM PENH: Defective goods, especially food products, can be exceedingly harmful to health.

 Over the past years Consumer Protection, Competition, and Fraud Repression (CCF) officers nationwide have taken steps to ensure that consumers are not purchasing potentially dangerous products.

Early this week, officials of the CCF in Takeo province have destroyed a huge volume of food products that were deemed unsafe for

human consumption or unfit for purpose, much of it goods expired beyond its sell by date.

The operation was held on the 20th of December, at a landfill in Sno village, Takeo. The Director of Consumer Protection, Competition, and Fraud Repression, Srey Sambath, together with other enforcement officers publicly incinerated 3 tonnes of defective goods, most of the products confiscated from the markets in Takeo’s capital area.

According to reports, the goods that were destroyed weighed a total of 2,935 kilograms.

 Director Sambath has stated the goods that were destroyed were canned goods, milk, as well as processed foods and beverages that had expired.

Others were much more serious infringements, as they contained harmful chemicals including methanol. The Director appealed to business owners to keep to correct business practices and not add banned chemicals to their goods. The Director also urged them to check the expiration dates of their products, as the effects to the public could be exceedingly harmful.

In recent months the sale of illicit alcohol has caused the deaths of scores of people, bringing concerns from authorities of the quality of products being sold to the citizens.