During the Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC)  54th Meeting in Blantyre on 9th January 2020, 72 cases were brought before the Commission in accordance with Section 8 of the Competition and Fair Trading Act; (72) cases of which twenty-four(24) were on alleged unfair trading practices. In one of the cases, the Commission ordered Shoprite Trading Limited to pay a fine of MK500, 000 for supplying expired products and improperly labeled products.

The above, according to a statement by CFTC, was a result of a surprise inspection conducted by the Commission showed that Chichiri Shopping Mall’s Shoprite in Blantyre has been supplying a range of processed meat products which were either expired or had their expiry date labels tampered with.

(i) 15 Citerio Paglio fresco bacon packets which were expired;

(ii) 111 Kapani bacon packets with damaged expiry dates; and

(iii) 68 samosa produced by Angels Foods Ltd which were expired.

“The investigation also established that the labelling on some of the products was unclear. This includes: improper and insufficient labelling of expiry dates; and expiry dates which had been bruised, hence not verifiable. This was a breach of Section 35 of the CPA.” says part of the statement signed by CFTC Executive Director James Kaphale.