Alert / Wheat Flour Premium Grade: a wheat flour with no date of manufacture or expiry, on the market

It is no longer a secret, stale or falsified products, unfit for consumption, flood the Lome and the interior of the country, to the great misery of the people. And for these products to flow easily, rogue traders significantly reduce their cost. This is the case of "Wheat Flour Premium Grade", a wheat flour of dubious quality that is currently on the market. Poor citizens with low financial capacity throw themselves on these products without taking care to check their dates of manufacture and expiry.


 In fact, four containers loaded with Wheat Flour Premium Grade wheat flour were landed a few weeks ago at the Autonomous Port of Lomé (PAL). Sources reveal that two of these containers were taken out of the Port and the contents dumped on the market, but the other two are seized by the customs in order to know the origin and the quality of this product. The same sources indicate that on the packing bags of this flour, it is mentioned nowhere dates of manufacture and expiry, but also the country of origin. However, on each bag is pasted a label with for information: "Wheat Flour Premium Grade, Lot Number 251017; Production Date .... Expiry Date .... ". This label can peel off and get lost easily.

Having discovered on the market this product whose manufacturing and expiry dates are not mentioned on the packaging, consumer rights organizations, including the Togolese Consumers' Association (TAC) approached the Ministry for inquire into the reasons for the issuance of the "Marketing Authorization for this product" to the owner. Commerce officials have acknowledged that the label on the packaging of this wheat flour does not provide information on the dates of manufacture and expiration, but pointed out that after a product analysis, it turned out It is of good quality and can be marketed. Consumers' rights advocates are not convinced by these reasons and have noted that this flour does not contain certain nutrients. According to them, this non-micronutrient-enriched product is of dubious quality and will have to be withdrawn from the market because it does not meet the standards of the decree issued by the Council of Ministers on March 7, 2012 for refined oils and wheat flour. According to this decree, it is a question of imposing an addition of nutritive substances (iron, zinc, vitamin A and iodine, among others) to the food products of large consumption to improve the nutritional quality of the diets. "Enrichment is a medium-term intervention technique for combating" hidden hunger "(a term for micronutrient deficiencies), said Charles Kondi Agba, then Minister of Health.

For ATC, this flour without date of manufacture or expiry and not enriched can harm the health of consumers. To this end, it invites people to always check the dates of manufacture and expiry of the products before buying them. It asks the Ministry of Commerce to be rigorous and demanding on the quality of products before any marketing authorization is issued.