A Jeddah Governorate committee has discovered an illegal warehouse for drying fish in the mountains east of Braiman District. The warehouse, which was being run illegally by expatriates, was uncovered in a routine inspection of walled yards. The search also uncovered large quantities of metal scrap, cartons and empty soft drink cans. A source said: “Around 300 tons of rotten fish were found stored in an unhygienic way, plus more in concrete pools which were to be salted. It also found 29 wrapped sardine packs each weighing 250 grams, 10,000 plastic rolls for wrapping fish, electrical cutting and wrapping machines and 30,000 stickers showing the date of wrapping and the name of the product ‘Samak Mumtaz' (Excellent fish).” The committee seized the documents and papers for marketing the fish at shops and restaurants, as well as a number of invoices showing the quantities of fish sold and amounts received. Ahmad Ma'bar, Chairman of the anti-commercial fraud commission at Jeddah's branch of the Ministry of Commerce, said: “The committee has destroyed the fish and submitted a joint report prepared by the officials who participated in the inspection tour. The owners of the walled yards and the owners of the restaurants whose names were mentioned in the invoices were summoned for investigation and implementation of the regulations against them.” Ma'bar called on all citizens to cooperate with authorities by reporting scrap sites and other locations where food is prepared and stored in an unhygienic manner. __
