Twenty-nine people including the owners, officials and employees of a food distribution company have been detained for allegedly selling expired food products.
The authorities have also ordered the seizure of the company warehouse and all its food retail outlets.
An intensive investigation has been launched into the possession of expired goods, trading and marketing them after modifying and changing their expiry dates, according to first chief prosecutor and assistant attorney general Wael Buallay.
In a statement today, the company was identified as Aldaaysi Markets and its registered warehouse, Aldaaysi Distribution.
Preliminary investigations indicated that spoiled food products, including biscuits and cookies, were allegedly marketed and sold after their expiry dates were altered or replaced.
Investigations began after a report was filed at the Khamis Police Station in the Northern Governorate following a complaint by an employee of the food and beverage company.
The expat stated that he had recently arrived in Bahrain and began working at one of the warehouses, where he claimed he was forced to change the expiration dates of expired food items.
This was allegedly done by removing the original date and replacing them with false new ones using various methods such as replacing old labels with new ones bearing forged expiration dates.
The employee stated that he refused to continue this practive and recorded a video documenting the process. He submitted the video with his report.
Subsequently, the case was referred to the Industry and Commerce Ministry, who initiated procedures of their own and ordered the closure of the warehouse and the company’s non-compliant stores.
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After receiving the report, a team from Public Prosecution also began conducting their own investigations, interrogating all 29 individuals, including owners, managers and employees, and ordering them to be put in provisional detention.
They are being charged with the processing and marketing of spoiled goods, storing and modifying expired goods, and providing misleading and false information about the products, which is in violation of the Unified Law for Combating Commercial Fraud of the Gulf Cooperation Council states.
Public Prosecution later also ordered the seizure of the warehouse, its content and all affiliated food retail outlets.
Specialists from the Industry and Commerce Ministry were tasked with auditing the inventory to identify expired items, ensuring their removal from the market, and preparing a detailed report.
The police have also been asked to conduct further enquiries into the incident, and investigations are ongoing to fully uncover all circumstances and prepare the case to be referred to criminal court.
While usually, Public Prosecution tends to refrain from disclosing the names of the suspects and companies involved in criminal cases, Mr Buallay decided to reveal the identity of the company in this case.
“The decision to name the company, Aldaaysi Markets and its registered warehouse, Aldaaysi Distribution, comes in the interest of public health and safety,” said Mr Buallay.
“Public Prosecution will continue to take firm legal action against anyone who endangers consumer health and safety.
“The law will be strictly applied to those proven to be involved in actions that threaten food security and put public health at risk.”
The GDN reported in 2022 that inspectors seized items, including dates and date products, which had their expiry dates altered from an unlicensed warehouses in the Capital Governorate where 9,000 expired food products, some dating back to 2019, were found.
The items were reportedly unfit for human consumption.
Stamps which were used to replace expiry dates were also confiscated at the facilities.
In the same year, inspectors seized hundreds of expired, rotten and damaged food items from a warehouse in the Capital Governorate which was also operating as an illegal repacking facility.
Officials said there were around 700 various expired products including rice flakes, rice flour, spices, tea, semolina, tamarind, wheat flour noodles and pickles that were being kept stored instead of being destroyed.
During a similar raid in 2021 tonnes of expired food seized from a warehouse in Hamala had to be destroyed.
A total of 94,000 expired food items featuring rice, lentils, chickpeas, ground spices, pickles and tomato paste were included in the haul, some dating back to 2008.
The warehouse also contained equipment used to erase expiry dates on products, stickers carrying brand names and new fabricated expiry dates.
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