Following the public outcry over expired products in various supermarkets in and around the city,IGIHE.com carried out a quick survey to establish the status of the matter.
In Simba and Nakumatt Supermarkets the major city shopping centers, our team established that products on shelves were found to expire within 6,7,8 days.
Other products on shelves were expired but still on sale for over a month while on a high price.
On the other hand, Justine Ngarambe the Head of Simba supermarket said that they care much about the standard of their products and they take stock control every day.
She said, “we cannot sell old and used products though we cannot even prevent people from blackmailing us. We reduce a price for products remaining with one month in order to finish quickly and those remaining with one week are taken out of the shelves replaced with brand new ones.”
She added that once their customer finds a product expired, he has to return it for exchange not later than 5 days.
Ngarambe concluded saying that Rwanda Bureau of Standards (RBS) visits their supermarket after every two months.
In a testimony from a client who bought ‘antibiotic’ medicine on 24th of a month from a RAMA pharmacy and after using them for some days he found that they had expired two months ago.
This person, who preferred anonymity, said that they assured him that the expiration date does not matter saying that medicine can be used 6 months more after the deadline.
The most striking problem is that most of the products which are said to be expired are beverages, food and medicine from pharmacies which are likely to harm people’s lives.
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