KULOB, Tajikistan -- Tajik officials in southern Khatlon Province have seized a large amount of expired and rotten food from a local hospital and some low-income families who received the food as charity, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
Four local businessmen had donated 1.5 tons of the Rolton brand dry noodle soup to the hospital and distributed it among the local population as a promotion on the eve of the 15th anniversary of Tajikistan’ s Constitution Day, which is marked on November 6.
But the packaged soup, which was made in Russia, was not safe to eat as the expiry dates on the packages had long since passed.
Said Davlatov, the chief of the Hygienic Control Service in Vose District, told RFE/RL that the soup was dangerous to consume, but added that people seemed to avoid it.
Hospital patient Jamila Saidova told RFE/RL that the soup was "so stinky nobody ate it."
Last month, officials in the same region confiscated from local shops more than 700 kilograms of tainted powdered milk imported from China.