JEDDAH: The Ministry of Commerce confiscated 500,000 substandard consumer products in a number of raids on stores in cities across the province.
Items were seized in 3,430 shops in Jeddah, 1,042 shops in Makkah, 174 shops in Madinah and an undisclosed amount in Taif.
According to the ministry, seized merchandise included products with overdue expiration dates, counterfeit goods and goods suspected of being tampered with.
The ministry destroyed over 470,000 food items and 12,000 nonfood items and took a large portion for evidence as part of an ongoing investigation against store owners.
Counterfeit jewelry was also seized after an investigation of nearly 600 jewelry stores.
Other confiscated items included over 1,200 sets of tires from 104 stores in the Makkah and Madinah region.
Over the past few months, the Ministry of Commerce has confiscated and destroyed numerous counterfeit products and expired goods.
Despite this move to protect consumers, some citizens say the ministry should be doing more to stop counterfeit goods from entering the Kingdom in the first place.
“There has to be increased monitoring by the Port Authority to ensure unsafe counterfeit goods never reach stores and the hands of consumers,” Hani Redwan, a Saudi citizen told Arab News.
When asked how stores are able to sell expired goods, Fahd Al-Huthaili from the department for combating commercial fraud at the ministry, said labels with altered expiration dates are often placed over the manufacturers original label.
He said many raids by the ministry result from consumer complaints. “If our inspectors find labels with altered expiry dates, the merchandise is seized and a warning issued to all distributors of the product.
500,000 substandard items seized
