The top health and food safety officials in Egypt held a meeting on Saturday to discuss the controversy surrounding the popular B.Laban chain, following presidential orders to ensure public safety.
Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, met with the head of the National Food Safety Authority (NFSA), Tarek al-Houby, to discuss mechanisms for monitoring food products and the establishments involved in their distribution.
This comes to implement Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s orders to ensure the quality and safety of food products circulating in the Egyptian market.
The Ministry of Health explained in a statement that Abdel-Ghaffar emphasized the need to swiftly implement President Sisi’s directive to address issues of concern to the Egyptian public and take the necessary corrective measures to protect citizen health.
The minister affirmed the continuation of inspection campaigns conducted by the Ministry of Health, in coordination with the NFSA, on food processing facilities across all governorates to ensure total compliance with health requirements for food products in circulation.
The meeting also discussed all procedures and conditions requiring review and correction by violators.
The minister ordered the resumption of operations of all branches of food chains that had been closed upon verifying their compliance with the health specifications and requirements announced by NFSA and other requirements, in cooperation with other relevant authorities.
Investigating B.Laban
Following complaints from citizens, the statement added that 232 inspections were conducted on the B.Laban chain’s branches and factories in various locations across the country.
The statement added that food of unknown origin and expired quantities were found.
It also revealed that there were 122 unlicensed establishments. Up to 437 samples were collected from the chain, a percentage of which were found to be non-compliant with Egyptian standard specifications and binding technical regulations.
It added that 697 kilograms of various foodstuffs and 70 liters of various beverages and juices were destroyed due to altered physical properties.
Approximately 387 cases were filed for reasons related to lack of health requirements or failure of food handlers to carry health certificates.
The statement continued that this resulted in legal measures to temporarily suspend these shops until all health and administrative violations are addressed, through the NFSA and the relevant administrative authorities in various governorates.
The statement indicated that on April 6, the head of the NFSA held a meeting with one of the owners of B.Laban and a team of technicians working there.
The meeting presented the corrective measures they needed to take, both in their factories and at their points of sale. However, no response was forthcoming regarding taking the necessary steps to address these concerns.
In light of the president’s directives, the chain’s owners were contacted to hold a coordination meeting to clarify the measures required to resume operations and improve the situation as soon as possible.
