Unregistered Drinking Water Found in This Province of Indonesia

Palembang, Indonesia (News Today) - The Medical and Food Supervising Agency (BPOM) in South Sumatran city of Palembang had recently found unregistered drinking water packs. The BPOM had issued warnings to two factories that produced the bottled drinking water, whose July and August 2010 products had been marketed illegally, Head of Palembang’s BPOM M Ali Bata Harahap said.

Speaking to newsmen here Tuesday, Harahap said the illegal fresh water was loaded into eight cargo trucks. Each truck loaded about a thousand boxes of bottles of drinking water. He said the bottled drinking water had been produced by two factories in South Sumatra Province but they were found before being massively marketed.

"The unregistered products remain stored in the factories. They cannot be marketed," he said.

The discovery of the bottled illegal drinking water was the result of BPOM’s routine sweeping operations, which was assisted by public information, Harahap said. The agency, he further said, conducted routine investigation and product sampling tests for the sake of consumers’ safety. The Eidul Fitri festivities could be used by irresponsible businessmen to gain profits by selling illegal or expired products.

"Therefore consumers should remain cautious," he said.

The BPOM had intensified its sweeping operations a few weeks before the coming of the fasting month of Ramadan on August 11. The Southeast Sulawesi province’s BPOM, for instance, had conducted its sweeping operations at both supermarkets and wet markets to protect consumers from consuming unhealthy products.

Consumers should be protected from any expired food, beverage and medicine, Chief of Southeast Province’s BPOM Guntur said. The consumer protection is needed due to the fact that contaminated food incidents frequently happen in Indonesia.

In February this year, for instance, a Nagasari village resident in Leles, Cianjur district, West Java, died after consuming contaminated food and drinks. Then in Barito Utara district, Central Kalimantan Province, contaminated food taken to break the fast was also suspected to have caused the death of a seven-year-old boy, Faizal, on August 19.

Source : kompas

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