Poisonous US Apples Still Circulate in Kendari

TEMPO.CO, Kendari — The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM) of Southeast Sulawesi has discovered hundreds of kilograms of Granny Smith and Gala apples imported from the United States that allegedly contain harmful Listeria bacteria. Some supermarkets in the province are still selling the banned apples.

Southeast Sulawesi BPOM head Adilah Pababbari said he would conduct sweeps on the apples at all fruit stores in the province, and that the agency would take the apples to its laboratory for further examination.

“We have ordered sellers not to sell the imported apples until the results of the lab testing are out,” he said on Thursday, January 29, 2015.

A number of fruit sellers at Kendari Market said they were aware of the ban on the sales of the apples following the discovery of the deadly bacteria they contained. The sellers, however, regretted the incident given the high number of their consumers who liked the apples. “They taste sweeter,” said Udin, the owner of Anugerah Apel fruit store on Jl. Antero Hamra, Kendari.

The Indonesia Rapid Alert Systems for Food and Feed (Insraff) announced the recall of the two types of imported apples in light of the discovery of Listeria bacteria in the apples—as shown by the results of an American examination announced on January 6, 2015. The US and Canada have recorded 32 and two cases of poisoning related to the apples, respectively. 

ROSNIAWATY FIKRI