CCF officers inspect foods in Kampong Speu province on January 20. CCF
In the three days prior to Lunar New Year, the Consumer Protection, Competition and Fraud Repression Directorate-General (CCF) found and confiscated more than 800kg of defective products tainted by chemicals in markets across the country.
CCF director-General Phan Oun ordered an increase inspection activities in all markets across the country prior to the holiday to prevent the sale of non-compliant goods, especially foods, to protect the welfare and economic interests of consumers.
“In fact, in three days of inspections in the markets nationwide from January 18 to 20, officials from the CCF found about 840kg of defective products. Some contained chemicals and some were past the expiration date. Those products were confiscated and destroyed,” said a CCF report seen by The Post on January 22
The report also claims that compared to last year this figure is a slight decrease and that products containing banned chemicals have decreased significantly.
On January 19, 180kg of fresh shrimp being sold at stalls in markets were found to have been injected with CMC jelly. Oun identified the shrimp as having come from Vietnam.
On January 20, expert officials from CCF branches in Stung Treng, Prey Veng, Battambang, Preah Vihear, Kampong Thom, Mondulkiri, Kampong Speu, Banteay Meanchey and Kandal provinces confiscated 408.66kg of defective and expired goods as well as other non-compliant goods and issued fines according to the procedures stated in the law.
“There has been no CCF official at the border since the government reformed our duties in 2019. Thus, at the border, there is only the General Department of Customs and Excise of Cambodia along with immigration. What the CCF officials are doing is under the programme of market monitoring, which means that the goods are already being sold in the markets,” he said.
He also said that the CCF Directorate-General would put more effort into inspections and research activities in markets and warehouses and cooperate with relevant institutions to inspect production sites if the market inspections result in suspicions of any domestic producer making unsafe goods.
In addition, Oun said that the purpose of this inspection was to prevent high-risk goods from being sold in the markets that were harmful to people’s health as well as to protect consumer rights and prevent misconduct and maintain integrity in business.
According to the analytical data from last year by the laboratory department of the CCF Directorate-General, 2020 types of samples – including 1,484 types of food, 102 types of agricultural products, 323 types of fuel and 111 types of consumer products – were confiscated as unsafe from markets in Cambodia.
About 30 per cent of the samples were found to contain chemicals that are harmful to people’s health, according to the CCF’s data.
