Posted: March 20th, 2012 - 5:46pm
Source: The Daily Star

BEIRUT -- Economy Minister Nicolas Nahhas said Monday that strict measures would be taken to control the import, storage and distribution of food.
“In the coming weeks, the agriculture minister will issue permits to allow all people that meet standards to store and distribute food,” Nahhas told reporters after attending a meeting for Parliament’s Economy, Trade, Industry and Oil committee at Nijmeh Square.
Nahhas said he had informed the committee of a number of measures that will be taken to guarantee food safety.
The minister assured the public that the Economy Ministry had toured warehouses across Lebanon over the past three days and found no spoiled food, although there were reports later in the day of raids that turned up spoiled goods.
The committee will convene next week to follow up on the matter.
For his part, Agriculture Minister Hussein Hajj Hasan said that his ministry had discovered some dairy factories in Lebanon selling products that had been tampered with.
Speaking to LBC TV Monday, Hajj Hasan said that some of these factories were marking their products as “Made in Lebanon,” when they were actually made in Saudi Arabia.
He said he had the names of the factories but refused to disclose them before investigations are complete.