Nation Sees Upsurge of Unsafe Food Products in Markets

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) has revealed that the circulation of unsafe food products has been on the rise in the past few years. During the year’s Ramadan month, the value of dangerous food in the market has reached Rp 6.9 billion (US$670,000).

BPOM deputy for Food Safety and Dangerous Ingredients Monitoring, Roy Sparinga, said that up to 35 percent of the food in the market from the whole processed food industry was unsafe. Processed foods found to be most dangerous include chocolate, energy drinks, canned drinks, and sugars.

Aside from that, a host of ingredients have also been deemed unsafe such as syrup, margarine, cereal, butter, biscuits, flour and unlicensed MSG products. "Most of them are imported," said Roy.

Based on the research and tests done in stores, supermarkets, and traditional markets during Ramadan, BPOM also discovered 3,037 items (171,887 packages) of food ingredients that failed to comply with the set standards.

As many as 964 items (3,907 packages) were food that had been compromised, 1,844 items (26,505) expired, 706 items (130,374 packages) illegally distributed, and 429 items (11,068 packages) were using labels that did not meet the required standards.

Roy said the turnover of these dangerous food types climbed drastically compared to those of 2011 and 2012. In 2011, BPOK discovered 132,255 packages worth Rp3.3 billion. Meanwhile, in 2012, there were 82,666 packages with an estimated value of Rp3.3 billion.

These products were found in Batam, Pekanbaru, Aceh, Pontianak, Jayapura, and Jakarta. They were imported from various countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Germany, the United States, and Cambodia.

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