DC Impact: Tasmac recalls expired beer stock

Chennai: A day after this newspaper carried a story on how government owned Tasmac Elite liquor shops were selling beer cans past their sell-by date to customers, Tasmac officials conducted a beer audit in as many as 15 Elite shops in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts and recalled hundreds of expired beer cans on Tuesday.

Tasmac, the government owned liquor distribution chain, manages purchase and sale of liquor in the state and an internal enquiry was ordered by senior officials into a network selling expired beer. “Tasmac is not supposed to procure, store and sell expired liquor,” a senior Tasmac official noted.

“We are also relieving six employees and one supervisor of the elite shop in Gokulam Arcade in Adyar. They had kept a laminated brochure of a particular foreign brand, to push the sale of expired beer. The brochure claimed that beer can be consumed for 24 months while the date on the seal in the can said it expires in 15 months,” a Tasmac official claimed.

Tasmac employees, who are hired on contract basis, are crying foul over the officials’ decision to remove some salespersons from work. “The expired beer cans were there in all elite shops. Why target only the staff in the Adyar shop? Beer cans were sent back to Ambattur godown after physical verification from all the shops. In some shops it was found that that the beer cans were delivered on the day of expiry,” noted a member of Tasmac workers’ union.

Deccan Chronicle carried a report about the Elite shop in Adyar being found selling an expired imported can of beer from Holland. The report talked about how Royal Dutch Post Horn beer, priced '270 per 500 ml can, turned into orange coloured juice with precipitation at the bottom and some flakes in between.
According to the company seal found on the bottom of the can, the beer manufactured in March 2015 expired in June 2016.

“But we were always told to keep the stock for sale for 3 months. If we receive the stock on June 30 we are supposed to sell the same till September 30,” pointed out a Tasmac employee. He also asked why nobody working in purchasing and in the godown is held responsible for pushing expired beer.     

Royal Dutch beer is being imported and sold to Tasmac by a Delhi based firm named Aquavitae Imports Pvt Ltd. “If somebody is procuring expired beer and asking us to sell it, what can we do?” another employee asked.