MEDIA & SOCIETY Is The Sierra Leone Brewery A Healthy Beverage Production Company? Posted by on Jan 24, 2010, 01:31

The current level of discovery of contaminations in sealed Star Lager Beer Bottles and Stout calls for government attention not withstanding the stage managed television appearance of the Deputy Minister of Health and other Senior Functionaries, all designed to water down the very serious issue of the health of the vast majority of Beer and Stout drinkers in Sierra Leone.

By the way, when the Deputy Minister of Health refers to the Sierra Leone Brewery, contributing to the economy of the country, one wonders whether he is aware that Star Lager Beer is yet to be proven an export commodity attracting foreign exchange to this country.

The Deputy Minister of Health also tended to compound the issue of these contaminations by stating that the “Standards Bureau” in Sierra Leone has given a clean bill of laden to the factory when that Bureau itself stands knee deep to be castigated for the current findings of noxious materials in products certified and sold to consumers with sickening effects, as demonstrated by a possible court action looming over the Sierra Leone Brewery Company. It is even more nauseating to learn yet again, that the Guinness beverage of world fame, is also bottled at the Sierra Leone Brewery in the East end of Freetown  in which a dark slimy substance has been discovered in yet another contaminated sealed Guinness bottle. Suffice it to say, at this stage that a caring government such as the APC Administration has shown so far, would be greatly perturbed with these new developments and would act firmly and swiftly to safeguard the health of the people of Sierra Leone as a whole, by taking measures of prophylactic nature, to avoid recurrence or continuation if ever.

One is tempted in a commentary of this sort, to ask whether good, professional, quality control mechanisms are in place at the Sierra Leone Brewery that most certainly would have been expected to avert discoveries of contaminations from the Company’s works. In any production industry, especially food production, the first mark of a good product is the care taken to ensure that the final out put is fit for human consumption. Can one therefore say that there have been lapses at the Beer Manufacturing Industry? How could these be put right to restore confidence in consumers, short of closing the entire manufacturing plant for a reset up and cleansing exercise, to start off on a clean slate all over again.

In food manufacturing industries such as Brewery, the rule remains as set out by legal experts that the manufacturer must always take reasonable care so as to avoid acts or omissions which can reasonably be foreseen to be likely to cause injury to consumers of the final product released into circulation for sale.

In this particular matter of noxious materials in Star Beer and now in a Guinness sealed bottle, it is reasonably obvious that the Company should always have consumers in mind, who would be closely and directly effected by acts that they ought reasonably to have had in their contemplation, that persons who would suffer when they use the product, in addressing their acts or omissions, which are now being called to question.

That is to say, an industry which for gain engages in the business of manufacturing articles of food and or drink intended for consumption has a duty to ensure their products are of merchantable quality.

A manufacturer of product which he sells in such a form as to show that he intends them to reach the ultimate consumers in the form in which they left him, with no reasonable possibility of intermediate examination, and with the knowledge that the absence of reasonable care  in the preparation or putting up of the product, will result in injury to the consumer,  owes a duty to the consumer to take reasonable care, although the manufacturer does not know the product to be dangerous and no contractual relationship exist between him and the consumer.

The current state of the Sierra Leone Brewery Industry as now evidenced by the unhygienic condition of the products requires stringent environmental measures to make the product more acceptable as a relaxing beverage.

In the paramount interest of the health of those who consume these beverages, it would be essential if government, through its health ministry directs the attention of environmental health officers to ensure that the Brewery Manufacturing Industry conforms to the general norm of good health standards at all material times.

The fact that someone has been affected by the product and proven by medical examinations,  is important in the view of this press, that suitable actions capable of ameliorating the effects of these social ills be taken to avoid a future recurrence.

No one can blame the government as being high handed in any action it proposes to take in the interest of citizens who would otherwise remain to be affected by the release into society of poor quality products.

From the foregone it is important that the products which have been called to question should be sought out and taken out of circulation to prevent any further complaints that would require a pathological medical examination.

It is hoped that government and all functionaries involved  would not only pay lip service to the current  situation but would ensure that  the Standards Bureau operates effectively; that manufacturing industries have  good  quality control mechanisms in place;  that environmental health inspectors are put to work to make sure that proper conditions exist in factories etc.