The Ministry of Commerce and Industry shut down two warehouse in Riyadh for illegally storing flour belonging to the General Organization for Grain Silos and Flour Mills allocated for bakeries.

Inspection teams from the ministry found 7,000 bags of flour, labelled as ‘“Patent Flour,” which was kept for sale to the local market at higher prices. The seized quantities included 1,200 bags of flour, weighing 45 kilograms. The inspectors also found 2,500 bags of flour weighing one kilogram, 1,800 bags of flour weighing two kilograms, and 950 bags of flour weighing 10 kilograms that were ready for sale. The inspectors also noticed presence of more than 9,000 empty bags ready to be filled with flour in unhygienic conditions.

“This constitutes a threat to the health and safety of consumers,” an official said, adding that the ministry would not tolerate such violations and would continue fighting against such frauds.

“The owners of the two warehouses are being probed,” he said, adding that “suitable penalties would be imposed on the violators.”

The ministry had called on all the consumers to report their complaints and observations to the notification center at the ministry through the toll-free number 1900.