Expired cheese importer reported to police

THE VETERINARY Services yesterday confirmed that had reported one of two dairy importers found with expired cheese in their fridges to police.

Senior veterinary official Charalambos Kakoyiannis told the Cyprus Mail the Veterinary Services reported Adelphi Petrou to police after they were found in possession of 2,089 kilos of expired cheese – some of which was a year old. The company was also allegedly found to have repackaged and changed the expiry dates on several of its cheeses. The same dairy farm then sold 57 kilos of its expired cheese to Semiramis Ltd, a bakery in the Lamatamia suburb of Nicosia.

However, a second dairy importer found with nearly four tonnes of expired cheese might not be reported, the veterinary officer said.

Kakoyiannis said there was no evidence that Klappas Trading Ltd, found with 3,755kg of expired cheese last Thursday, had sold any of its expired products to other outlets.

“None of the packages were found to have been tampered with or any of the cheese repackaged and the sell-by date altered,” he said. “The Health Services have not found any of the expired goods were sold to any of the company’s clients.”

In light of this the, Veterinary Services are still assessing whether or not to go ahead and report them to police, he said.

Kakoyiannis said veterinary inspectors had in the wake of the scandal visited and inspected the premises of half of all importers of foodstuffs on the island.

“We have inspected around 45 to 46 importers that import cheese, ham, meat, anything of animal origin and have found nothing out of the ordinary so far.”

He said the inspections would continue until all 90 registered food importers had been covered.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.