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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Expired goods sold at the Carbon area in Cebu City were confiscated on Tuesday.
The selling of the expired goods was discovered following a tip received by Cebu City market administrator Raquel Arce.
Arce said they were informed that at least seven vendors in Carbon area were selling expired products at cheaper prices.
These were placed on a wooden bed and displayed at the roadside near the Carbon market.
The confiscated goods, worth about P100,000, included repacked jellies, ice pops, baby diapers, seasonings, canned evaporated milk, fruit cocktails, ketchup, powdered juices, margarine, raisins, powdered chocolate drink, sausages and ground meat.
Police accompanied personnel from the office of the market administrator, confiscated the expired items.
Arce said they learned that the vendors selling the expired goods would arrive in the market at 2 a.m.
About 3 a.m., a team was already in the area.
No one was arrested since no vendor owned up the confiscated goods.
Arce said they would verify complaints from some customers that the expired goods came from Barangay (village) Paknaan, Mandaue City.
Arce said she suspected that the buyers of the expired goods were food vendors.
Arce urged the vendors who sold the expired goods to cooperate in their investigation so they could identify the main source.
“If they would cooperate, they would be given a formal space outside the Carbon market as long as they would not sell expired goods. It's a bargaining agreement,” Arce said in Cebuano.
The expiry date of some of the products was erased.
The City Health Department tested the seized products and found out that they were unsafe to consume.
The department recommended that the confiscated items be turned over to the Department of Agriculture so it could be used as fertilizers.
