Police arrest cooking oil smugglers: Malawi Bureau of Standards shut down shops
Malawi Police in the tea growing district of Mulanje on Thursday intercepted gallons of cooking oil smuggled from Mozambique, and have since arrested two smugglers in the process.
The law-enforcers have intercepted 71 (20 litters) gallons of cooking oil packed in a minibus registration number MH 3801.
Two people, identified as Chifundo Chithyoka and Khisi plying their business at Chikuse Trading Centre, Mulanje have been arrested and charged of smuggling items into the country.
“The officers on night patrols as the ones who, in course of duties, met the minibus using an unchartered route, which prompted them to stop and search it,” explained Mulanje police Public Relations Officer, Gresham Ngwira.
Ngwira said the two had no official Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) documents, allowing them to import the cooking oil into the country.
“The minibus was impounded and currently the cooking oil has been handed over to MRA at Muloza boarder”.
Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS) Chief Executive Officer Davlin Chokazinga has since issued a stern warning to people who are involved in smuggling and selling of unrefined and uncertified cooking oil in local markets across the country.
He said MBS will comprehensively engage its inspectors to go to different markets in all districts in the country and confiscate all the uncertified cooking oil.
Chokazinga said cooking oil of such nature is dangerous to human health and they create health pressure not only on the people using them but the country’s health system.
“That is why we insist that people, whatever the case, need to buy oil that is approved by MBS as oil that is well refined and certified as suitable for human consumption,” he said.
In a related development, MBS has with immediate effect suspended operations of Krazy Foods situated at Ginnery Corner and People’s Blantyre Metro Shop catering and bakery services due to continuous non compliance to hygienic conditions.
The two institutions have been failing to abide by the Malawi Standard Number 21; Food and Food Processing Units –Code of Hygienic Conditions.
Meanwhile the bureau MBS has advised the general public against patronizing these two places until the hygienic conditions have been improved and the suspension lifted.
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MBS idiots are just working to support inefficient cooking oil produced by amwene. It terms fo safity and quality the mozambique cooking oil is good and safe. The whole of Mulanje we have been using it for years, there is no one who died of cooking oil poison from Mosambique. Fools
Bravo MBS inu ndi amene mukugwira ntchito ndithu m’bomamu continue the good work Mr
While it is indeed true for the health of the nation to consume MBS certified products, on the issue of cooking oil from neighboring Mozambique, the main problem is that Malawian refined cooking oil, say, is too expensive for the common man. This is the trade off between cost and safety. You will not that a 5 litre gallon at Tsangano turn-off or at Thete(Malirana) in Dedza, or at Mitundu, or in Lilongwe city costs around MK3,400.00 while our own 5 litre Kazinga cooking oil by Unilever costs above MK7,200.00. One, therefore, tend to wonder as to what is the… Read more »
Keep it up mBs.Muyendele dziko lose.Misika yambiri mukugulisidya mafuta osakhala bwino.Or makampani akuluakulu,kukoma,super star,etc>check them ndi aumve zedi.Mukanizeso mafuta oyeza mutimapepala commonly called”timakondomu’.Timafalitsa TB.Mzakwacha Nixon,pretoria>+27731440799.
” Unrefined cooking oil is dangerous..” MBS should do its homework. Many asian countries consume unrefined oil, which is more healthy than the chemically processed refined oil. Unrefined oil can be reused several times whilst frying, whereas refined oil gets black after you fry a couple of times. Natural oil is healthier than refined oil and cheaper as well
muli ndi nthawi eti? afana akuyesetsa kudzithandiza kuti apeze chakudya in this failed country inu mukuwagwiranso. osakamanga a ujeni bwanji? there are real thieves and smuglers out there, osati awa ayi.