Concerns over limitations to the capacity of the Government Food and Drug Analyst Department (GA-FDD) to effectively monitor the importation of suspected fake foods—particularly milk—into the country and more importantly to prevent the imports from being placed on the local market are raising questions as to whether this deficiency is not now putting at serious risk the health of local consumers including, worryingly, children whose diet includes a significant intake of manufactured infant formula.
During two recent interviews with the department’s Director Marlon Cole, this newspaper was told that there were, indeed, considerable limitations to the local capacity to monitor and control the importation of fake foods into Guyana, a circumstance which he said had been occasioned both by institutional limitations and by the indifference of some importers to import regulations. Apart from the fact that monitoring limitations render it difficult for the department to become aware of the presence of some imports until they were landed and in some instances distributed, this newspaper was informed that
