The  Inspection Directorate in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism (MoICT), has recently destroyed expired goods that were last year confiscated from a warehouse in Hamala.

The step follows the decision announced by the Public Prosecution to task the Ministry to confiscate and destroy the items.

On the occasion, Mr. Abdulaziz Al Ashraf, Assistant Undersecretary for Control and Resources, explained that the court has sentenced the individuals involved in the case with varying verdicts, which included imprisonment from three to five years, fines from BD2,000 to BD5,000, and permanent deportation.

The punishments came in response to the defendants' involvement in replacing the validity dates on the expired commodities with new ones and trading it in the local market.

Mr. Al Ashraf clarified that the destruction process was done in cooperation with the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Southern Area Municipality, in implementation of the Public Prosecution's decision.

The destroyed items included 94,000 food commodities of more than 80 brands of different origins. He added that investigations in the case has led to another warehouse in Juffair, where 14,000 products were detected.

The items included multiple food items such as rice, lentils, chickpeas, black pepper, turmeric, pickles, tomato paste, grape leaves, corn, coconut powder and others.

Mr. Al Ashraf expressed thanks and appreciation to the Public Prosecution, the Ministry of Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Southern Area Municipality for their cooperation in the case.

He reaffirmed the Ministry's keenness to defy any attempts of commercial fraud that would pose risk to the health of citizens and residents.​