CRISIS PROMOTED `EXPIRED FOOD’

Panorama.am 16:11 25/09/2009
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In these days Panorama.am reporter happened to see selling of expired
food and applied to the Chairman of Consumers’ Union. But our reporter
has also applied to the department of food protection of Ministry of
Agriculture to get any comments.

Arthur Varjapetyan, of the ministry told that since 1 June, 2009, the
checking activities in 22 small and middle size enterprises, as the
checking activities are conducted only when the enterprise has 70mln
AMD circulated.

`In other cases, if consumer’s health or life is threatened we request
the Prime Minister to get authorities to pass control,’ official said.

To the question how long it takes to get the correspondent response
from the PM, Varjapetyan answered 2-3 days, sometimes a week.

There is a hot line also, and the consumers could call and tell about
their concerns. The telephone number is 45 74 21.

The official says only conditioned by the crisis, the government made
a decision to ease checking activities. But the official encourages
shop owners to be honest and not to sell expire dated food.