Head of BPOM supervisory team in Riau, Alexander, said in Dumai on Wednesday that besides canned beverages like Redbull, Coca Cola, Sprite, Nescafe, Bear Brand, and Milo, his office has also confiscated illegal and superannuated food.
"Food and beverages of different types had also been destroyed," he said.
Alexander added that he and three other members of the team have at least combed ten stores selling packed food and drinks.
The combing began at Biesta Supermarket at Jalan Sukajadi. "Here we found several items of packed food and drinks. But their value is still small compared to the very busy port," Alex said.
From the BPOM team cover several distributors selling food and drinks at Jalan Sukajadi.
"Here we came across to thousands of imported canned drinks without label and therefore also illegal worth Rp13 million," Alex said.
The inspection is continued to a number of other stores and supermarkets providing packed food and drinks in the center of the city.
"We found foods and drinks with thousands of packages. More than 90 pct of them are dominated by illegal goods," he said.
Most of the illegal products we found, Alex said, had been imported from Malaysia and Singapore by sea.
"This means that in Dumai there were still many actions that cause a loss to the state, including importing food and drinks illegally," he said.
On a different occasion, head of BPOM in Riau Sumaryanta said that the raids against food and drinks by his men are carried out on a routine basis in certain periods.
This he said was carried out by his office as not to come to the attention of dirty people.
"He said if the raids were announced before hand, it would not be a real raid in the true sense of its term. We were afraid that if we come to Dumai, the stores and warehouses were already emptied, leaving only illegal products," he said.
Sumaryanta also said in Ramadhan his men have increased their operations of the stores and warehouses throughout Riau, in Dumai in particular.
"Dumai is known for its port. Part of daily necessities came from Dumai which is highly prone to illegal activities or smuggling. In this context we planned to go down to Dumai regularly in the fasting month as the people will be increasingly looking for food stuffs for Idul Fitri festivities," Sumaryanta said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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