More spoiled fish seized in south Lebanon

Authorities continued a crackdown Monday on expired food items, confiscating a massive amount of spoiled fish from a warehouse in Sarafand, south Lebanon. Security sources told The Daily Star about 3.5 tons of expired frozen fish had been seized from the warehouse in Sarafand on the Zahrani coast near the port city of Sidon. Further south, a patrol from the Consumer Protection Office found boxes of expired chewing gum in a dumpster outside al-Tadamun football club in Tyre. In the Beirut neighborhood of Tarik Jadideh, authorities seized massive amounts of spoiled food early Monday from a warehouse that belongs to two brothers from the Natour family. Meat warehouses in the west Beirut suburbs of Sabra and Shatila belonging to the Natour brothers were raided last week. A series of raids has recently taken place on warehouses and establishments around the country, uncovering tons of meat and other goods whose expiry dates have lapsed. Authorities have also detained a number of individuals for questioning over possible violations of food safety regulations, after catching them in the act of disposing of expired foodstuffs. The food safety issue is expected to take up politicians' attention this week after the agriculture minister spoke of a “terrible” situation at slaughterhouses in Beirut and Tripoli, and promised to introduce new stringent measures on meat importers. The heads of associations representing restaurants, meat importers, supermarkets and local food industries met with Prime Minister Mikati over the weekend and discussed the crackdown on expired foodstuffs, which has been the subject of a campaign by the authorities following the recent discovery of tons of spoiled meat in warehouses across Greater Beirut.