Consumers urged to exercise caution when buying goods on Black Friday
The Department of Health urges consumers to exercise extra caution when buying goods, especially food products during the Black Friday frenzy by prioritising quality and safety over quantity and savings to mitigate against buying counterfeit and expired foodstuffs.
It is undisputable that Black Friday deals provide consumers with discounts and savings on a variety of goods, therefore it is important for consumers to guard against purchasing counterfeit and expired foodstuffs by thoroughly checking food labelling and expiry dates on food items to prevent ongoing sporadic cases of life-threatening food poisoning.
Food consumers are reminded to be on the lookout and report any suspicious goods sold by the outlets and retailers to Environmental Health Practitioners or Food Inspectors at their nearest municipal offices or Consumer Goods Council of South Africa.
Tips to identify possible illicit food products
- Colour would normally differ from the original because incorrect additives were used to manufacture the fake products.
- Inconsistency in the texture, smell and colour of the product
- Check if manufacturing and expiry date are not adulterated with or damaged, or not clearly visible.
- Check the nutrition label on supplement and food items, because in most cases fake goods contain some discrepancy in listing the ingredients
- Carefully look at the packaging if it is not suspicious because counterfeiters produce close replicas, but mostly cannot perfect it
Consumption of expired and counterfeit foods can pose serious health risks, including food poisoning, allergic reactions and long-term health complications.
The Department through its Food Control and Environmental Health Sections has been working closely with other stakeholders to raise public awareness about the dangers on consuming counterfeit and expired food products in support of Environmental Health Practitioners or Health Inspectors to keep the public safe.
The country has a total number of 1712 Environmental Health Practitioners, otherwise known as Health Inspectors spread across 44 districts and 8 metropolitan municipalities, serving a population of 62 million South Africans, which translates into one health inspector for every 36 000 people.
This means the efforts to prevent production and selling of counterfeit and expired foodstuffs detrimental to human health cannot be left solely in the hands of food inspectors, but it should be everyone`s business.
People should not buy nor consume highly perishable products with damaged packaging or lapsed expiry dates, even if it smells and looks good.
The South African Police Service are empowered to investigate and also authorized under the Foodstuffs Act as Inspectors and can act with regards to collection of food samples for analysis as part of their investigation, especially where is a case of unnatural death.
Members of the public are not allowed in terms of this legislation to take the law into their own hands to conduct any food inspection blitz in food outlets, but they should report any outlet to the relevant authorities.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Mr Foster Mohale
Health Departmental Spokesperson
Cell: 0724323792
Email: Foster.mohale@health.gov.za
Mr Doctor Tshwale
Spokesperson for Health Minister
Cell: 063 657 8487
Email: Doctor.Tshwale@health.gov.za
