It appears that many shops continue to sell expired food items posing risks to health and the Ministry of Health (M.O.H.) is calling on members of the public to report the matter if they come across a shop that does so.

In an interview with the Samoa Observer, Assistant Chief Executive Officer for M.O.H, Dr. Glenn Atoa Fatupaito said this is one of the challenges the Ministry deals with challengingly due to the shortage of staff.

"We had those people before but I don't have the specific statistics because usually, we go in response to a complaint and if the item is expired then we uplift it but if there are numerous items expired then we move to the closure," he said.

"I know it happened once in the last three years but I don't have the specific details.

"I think because we're low in staff, we don't have nearly enough enforcement so we usually respond based on complaints or reports submitted to the Ministry.

"Especially with food items and quality of stores, but again, once we get a response and ideally if there is enough staff then we would go but there are just too many businesses but what we do for example, is we try to be more proactive of new food businesses, food handlers, where they're going to sell food to register we do this."

In terms of expired stocks,  Dr. Fatupaito stressed that comes from complaints or someone from the Ministry walking into a store and finds out some expired goods then they go investigate.

"If it's expired goods then we go in and inspect and we have the power to cease even destroy," he said.

The Ministry also has its intersectoral cooperation with MCIL in monitoring these things, especially goods in store and if they notice that they're expired then they refer it to M.O.H.

"Yes definitely they can either let us know on our Facebook page, we also have enquiries on the website, [email protected] so any sort of questions or if you want to give us a tip," he urged.

Samoa Observer understands that several shops have been selling expired goods.

There was one shop that was closed and warned by the Ministry in the last three years for selling expired goods.