Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Indonesian Food and Drug Supervisory Agency (BPOM) has uncovered 2,939 food items worth Rp2.9 billion in 72,814 inappropriate packaging in the run-up to the Christmas 2014 and New Year 2015 holidays.

"This finding only shows the tip of the iceberg. The real number must be much larger than that," BPOM Head Roy A. Sparringa stated during a press conference held in his office here on Monday.

Roy said his agency had inspected food products with expired dates, damaged packaging, and inappropriate labeling, as well as those packaged without licenses and labeling in Indonesian language.

Most of the food items confiscated by the agency were those with expired dates accounting for 68.18 percent, without licenses 21.26 percent, decayed 7.14 percent, inappropriate packaging labels 3.34 percent, and labels without Indonesian language 0.07 percent.

He affirmed that most of the expired food products were soft drinks, snacks, biscuits, instant noodles, coffee, UHT and powder milk, chocolates, and syrups.

Food products that had decayed were sweetened condensed milk, canned fish, snacks, soft drinks, UHT milk, and instant noodles.
(Uu.A014/INE/KR-BSR/B003)

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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