Outdated salt detected at Old Moor Street

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) uncovered a racket where outdated stocks of salt have been repackaged with new 'expiry dates' tags attached before being released to the market.

According to Consumer Affairs and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando, the salt obtained from the salt companies where the expiry date had long past had been converted into small packs and the expiry date extended by as much as one year. Over 3,500 such packs each weighing 250 grammes were detected during a raid carried out by the CAA flying squad on a trade centre in Old Moor Street yesterday.

It was revealed that 1,800 such packs with their doctored 'expiry dates' were released to the market on a daily basis, the Minister said.

The raid was conducted by the CAA's Special Investigations Unit led by Pradeep Kaluarachchi.