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Abigail Mawonde Herald Reporter
A local company is reportedly distributing expired Indian spices in major supermarkets in the country after illegally extending the products’ lifespan, The Herald can reveal. Harvegal Marketing supplies major shops with Indian spices. Sources at the company told The Herald recently that the spices were procured cheaply from South Africa. They said Harvegal Marketing used chemicals to erase the printed expiry dates, and replaced them with new dates printed on stickers.

“We use various chemicals to remove the printed expiry dates on the spices and curry pastes. We then place stickers with new expiry dates on top, extending the shelf life of a product by a year and half or so,” said the employee.

“For other products where we cannot erase the expiry dates, we just place stickers on top, hoping (that) customers will not notice.”

The company supplies Glutagon soups, kitchen spices and curry pastes, among other products.

The Herald is in possession of some of the products, which expired last year in October but had their lifespan extended to June 2016.

The Herald bought the products from prominent shops in Harare where Harvegal Marketing supply their merchandise. In an interview, Harvegal Marketing owner, Ms Tarryn Crendall, confirmed the spices belonged to her company, but professed ignorance over the extension of product lifespan.

“The product is ours, but I am not aware that there are stickers being placed on the expiry dates. We always order spices, which have a lifespan of six months to a year. I am going to look into it. I will carry out my investigations on the matter,” she said.

Some supermarkets are said to have returned the products after realising they had expired. But Ms Crendall denied this, saying: “Shops that claim to have returned our products told you lies. We actually went there to collect the spices because they owed us over $3 000.”