Azerbaijan, Baku, March 17 / Trend U. Ismayilova /
In 2009, the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Rights Protection under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economic Development withdrew about 543 tons of expired food products from sale. From early 2010 about 46.200 tons of such products were withdrawn, deputy head of the state service Araz Aliyev said at the conference "Protection of Consumer Rights: Realities, Perspectives" today.
"Meat and meat products, fish products, animal fats, canned foods, mineral water and soft drinks, fruit and vegetables, dairy products, alcoholic beverages were among withdrawn products," Aliyev said.
According to him, in 2009, about 136,7 tons expired products, 1.5 tons of products of unknown origin, 393.9 tons of food non-compliant with regulatory and technical documents, 10,9 tons of products that are not stored in the appropriate temperature conditions were revealed. From early 2010 the state service withdrew 1.5 tons of products of unknown origin, 11,6 tons of expired products, 33.1 tons - products inappropriate with normative and technical documents.
Aliyev said that about 18.8 tons of food withdraen from early 2010 (137 tons in 2009) were eliminated.
The state service withdrew 1.7 tons of expired baby food, as well as 11,300 units of toys and 2,397 pieces of children's clothing, non-compliant with regulatory and technical documents as a part of measures, he said.
About 1,017.5 tons of fake cement were withdrawn from sale as a part of the monitoring carried out on the building materials market in Azerbaijan last year, Aliyev said.
According to him, in January and February the state service received 31 appeals in connection with violation of consumer rights (compared to 221 appeals in 2009). In 15 cases, consumers' rights were restored, in 16 cases, the appeals are still considered.
In January and February, the state service has examined violations on 162 facts for which penalties totaling $ 255.900 manat were imposed, compared to 1.388 million manat (on 858 facts) last year.
As of March 17, the official exchange rate is 0.8033 manat to $1.