A PROBE has been launched into allegations that a food supplier in Bahrain has been selling expired goods to customers including a private school, five-star hotels and government establishments.
They have been made by a former employee who also accused the company, which cannot be named for legal reasons, of tampering with expiry labels on products such as cheese, pistachios, jam concentrates and glaze – as well as using stale oil and two-year-old mozzarella.
However, the owner has strongly denied the accusations and claimed they were made by a disgruntled former employee who had sought to “blackmail” him over a “personal affair”.
The allegations also include claims that 300 cartons of expired butter were used in croissants supplied to a school.
Video footage provided by the ex-employee, allegedly showing staff replacing expiry labels with new ones, has now been submitted to the Health Ministry for review.
“Public health director Dr Maryam Al Hajeri is looking into the matter,” a Health Ministry public relations spokeswoman told the GDN.
An official at the ministry’s food inspection department also confirmed the company would be “inspected”.
The ex-employee claims she was sacked after alerting customers and says she has filed two cases against the company, alleging fraud and seeking compensation.
“My BD150,000 compensation claim is for illegally terminating me as well as to support my 15-year-old daughter from my ex-employer,” she told the GDN.
“I did not do this out of a personal grudge, as one might think, but simply because I cannot keep quiet.
Alerted
“I served the company in a senior position for 16 years and helped in building the business.”
She claimed that she first alerted the Health Ministry anonymously about such practices on a smaller scale almost eight years ago and the company was warned.
“During the past two years I was deeply disturbed at the extent of expired items that the company was supplying that I decided to gather evidence,” she said.
“Last year, they used 300 cartons of expired butter in croissants supplied to a school, while during Muharram items prepared in stale oil and expired mozzarella cheese were supplied to bakers and food outlets.
“This really upset me and I decided to alert the customers and I gathered proof.
“Chefs from five-star hotels returned products citing tampered labels and the management came to know about my involvement and they fired me on November 2.”
A chef at a leading restaurant chain confirmed it had received expired products last month from the supplier.
“We were supplied with expired apricot jam concentrate and pistachios which had tampered labels so we returned it,” he said.
Another chef at a five-star hotel confirmed it was notified about the alleged supply of expired food items, but refused to comment further.
Meanwhile, a purchase manager at another five-star hotel said she was “not in a position to comment” on the “rumours”.
However, the company’s owner denied the allegations, saying that the woman was “blackmailing” him over a “personal affair”.
“We are a decent family business with a reputation and this woman is trying to destroy my business and tarnish my image, just because I did not yield to her BD100,000 demand over a personal issue,” he said.
“She made the employees do the tampering job and filmed the process.
“She also went to all our customers, but they are not fools to believe her blindly.
“She left the job on her own and now all newspapers are calling me with this story, after which we notified her that her visa has been cancelled.
“There is a law in the country and I leave the rest to the government.”
raji@gdn.com.bh
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