Nearly 1,000 ‘expired’ bags of cement seized

Irangika RANGE

The Consumer Affairs Authority’s (CAA) flying squad yesterday seized around 1,000 bags of cement that had passed their expiry date from a warehouse in Adharshawatta, Bandaragama and sealed the facility.

The “expired” cement was allegedly being loaded onto a lorry to be sold in the market when the CAA officials arrived at the scene. The cement stock was being repacked after changing the manufacturing details.

Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando said a group of workers was involved in the racket of selling outdated cement after repacking them in bags labeled with new dates.

The flying squad has confiscated around 1,000 bags of cement and banned the sale of the cement stock. The CAA flying squad conducted the raid following a tip-off that inferior quality cement stocks were being repacked after changing expiry dates.The suspects will be produced before the Bandaragama Magistrate’s Court today.