KAMPALA-Uganda; The National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) has urged all supermarkets to ensure that they stock only UNBS certified locally manufactured products, in a bid to rid the market of substandard products and ensure safety of consumers.
This is in line with the UNBS mandate of promoting and enforcing standards in protection of public health and safety and the environment against dangerous and sub-standard products
The UNBS Head of Public Relations and Marketing, Ms. Sylvia Kirabo, made the remarks during the stakeholder engagement with supermarket owners organised by UNBS at the head office in Bweyogerere.
“During the routine Market surveillance inspections around the country, we found that some new players in the supermarket sector are stocking products that are not certified and sometimes when they have stock that has expired, they take advantage and sell it to unsuspecting consumers. But this is not acceptable.” Ms. Kirabo said.
“So we’ve called the supermarket owners to re-educate them about their roles and responsibilities so that in the next round of market surveillance operations, all supermarkets found doing this shall be taken on as the law requires.” Ms. Kirabo added.
Concerns were also raised about supermarkets that sell imported goods, regarding shipping of products without undertaking Pre-Export Verification of Conformity (PVoC) or lacking a Certificate of Conformity (CoC), which causes delays and more costs when the goods are subjected to National Inspection.
“We needed to inform our stakeholders that it is their responsibility to look for the PVoC service providers across the nations, to ensure that they do inspection, testing and get a CoC for their products before the goods are brought here.” said Mr. Ronald Ahimbisibwe, the Ag. Manager of UNBS Imports Inspection department.
“PVOC, a pre-shipment inspection program aims to ensure only quality and safe products are imported in to the country. Proper procedures must be followed by all importers including supermarkets that import goods, to ensure there is no mess up and influx of substandard products on the Ugandan market.” Mr. Ahimbisibwe added.
The PVoC service providers who were part of the meeting cited impatience by some importers, who insist on shipping products into the country when their products are still undergoing laboratory tests.
The supermarket owners were grateful to UNBS for organising the sensitisation meeting where issues affecting them were discussed. They also asked UNBS to carry out door-to-door sensitisations with all actors in business including manufacturers, transporters, suppliers, distributors and operators of warehouses.
UNBS assured the stakeholders that the sensitisations are to be conducted regularly for all members of the business community to ensure that no one is left behind.
