The Lagos State Consumer Protection Agency (LASCOPA) has called on products’ retailers and suppliers, in the state, to stop altering products’ details, especially consumables, to prevent stockpiling unwholesome or expired goods.
The agency’s General Manager, Mrs Kemi Olugbode, who gave the warning in Lagos, recently, while speaking on the activities of the agency towards ensuring food safety in the state, also stressed the need for such retailers and suppliers to always ensure proper examination of such details, in the interest of consumers in the state.
Mrs Olugbode explained that the warning had become imperative, since some products suppliers in the state, had been discovered, by the agency, to be in the habit of altering the details of their products, before delivering them to retailers.
She noted that details of such products are altered by unscrupulous suppliers, and sometimes the retailers themselves, to deceive their clients and unsuspecting consumers, by portraying such unwholesome products as genuine.
She added that the Monitoring and Enforcement Team of the agency recently uncovered a brand of Listerine Mouth Wash, which had expired in July 2019, but doctored to read July 2020, in order to deceive unsuspecting consumers.
While maintaining that the agency would not tolerate any form of deception and unfair trade practices, in the state, Mrs Olugbode expressed the agency’s determination to get to the root of the matter by carrying out further investigations and bringing those involved in the unethical practice to book.
She therefore called on suppliers, retailers and all those involved in the production and supply chain of consumable products to be alive to their responsibilities by ensuring that only safe and wholesome products are displayed for sale.
The LASCOPA boss also warned that the agency would not hesitate to invoke the necessary law, to ensure that defaulters are brought to book to adequately safeguard the rights of consumers in the state.