India Busts Operation Repackaging Expired Food for Export
By Francis Mascarenhas and Aditya Kalra, Reuters
Food safety officials in Mumbai have uncovered an illegal operation that allegedly relabeled expired or nearly expired products from brands including PepsiCo, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and Unilever for export.
According to a Reuters report, investigators found chemicals used to erase original dates, equipment for printing new ones and counterfeit nutrition labels that altered ingredients, calories and serving sizes—sometimes apparently to match foreign labeling requirements. Nearly 5,000 cartons were found at the warehouse, with some packages carrying manufacturing dates that had not yet occurred.
The companies themselves are not accused of participating in the scheme; the warehouse operator said it was working for 19 exporters. Authorities have not disclosed where the products were headed. The case exposes a difficult food-safety vulnerability: once branded products move through fragmented export and distribution chains, consumers may have little way to know whether the information printed on the package can still be trusted.
