27 Jun 2008

American Samoa health authorities monitoring food products

9:44 am on 27 June 2008

Truckloads of food items and goods which have expired, do not have proper labeling or were in bad condition were pulled off store shelves and dumped at American Samoa's Futiga landfill yesterday.

Inspectors from the Environmental Health Services of the Department of Health, did a sweep of stores in the Bay Area and Nuuuli and Tafuna in response to mounting complaints from the public.

Acting Chief Sigafili Leiato Leiato says they collected large quantities of goods which were are labelled in Oriental languages, had reached their use by dates or had other were in a state that made them unsafe.

The inspectors will continue their sweep today.

Leiato says staff they will inspect restaurants and will cite or even close down any restaurants or food vendors that are not up to public health standards.