Mukesh shopping center booked for contaminated products

A joint team of inspectors led by the by the Inspector-General from the Ministry of Commerce and the Environmental Health and Sanitation Department from the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) on 28 May disposed off hundreds of cartoons containing different kinds of drinks, food stuffs and plastic materials from the warehouses of Mukesh Shopping Center in Vai Town, Monrovia.

The move by the government enforcement team comes in the wake of tip-off that the entity was in possession of impure items which subsequently led to the discovery of the unwholesome commodities.

Our reporter who witnessed the operation that started early Monday morning to 4:55 PM, says at least three truck loads of expired and impure materials were removed from the shopping center’s warehouses.

In one of the warehouses was huge flow of feces (toilet) spreading on the floor where goods are kept and sold for human consumption. Others were profusely leaking, causing most of the goods to be damaged by water.

There are claims that some of the items were expired for over three years, but continued to be stored in warehouses by the management and sold to the consuming public at low rate to clear the warehouses.

The Commerce Inspector-General who preferred not to comment on the exercise boarded one of the sanitation trucks conveying the unhygienic goods to the Wein Town Waste Management Site for proper disposal (burial).

The government enforcement exercise attracts a very huge number of people, most of whom were left in total dismay over the consignment of expired goods taken from the shopping center.

The government regulations states that any business establishment violating the commerce laws is subjected to closure, fines, and prosecution which is applied to Mukesh Shopping Center.

The MOC last month tracked down huge consignment of contaminated frozen items from the warehouses of Abi Jaoudi which also suffered similar fines and other measures.

When contacted, the son of the owner of the shopping center only identified as Mukeshe, said that he could not comment on the situation because his father who runs the business was absent from the business establishment on the day of the clearing.

By Emmanuel Mondaye–Edited by Winston W. Parley