A farmer from Mpumalanga was granted bail of R8 000 on Thursday after spending a night behind bars in Secunda for allegedly repackaging expired and rotten food for sale.
Pieter Johannes Grobler, 30, was arrested on Wednesday following a tip-off from a reliable source about so-called health hazard activities on his farm.
A spokesperson for the Hawks, Lieutenant Colonel Magonseni Nkosi, says police and health inspectors from the local government descended on his farm, where members uncovered two warehouses with four cold rooms that were loaded with expired food, including meat, chicken and dairy products packed in about 1,000 crates.
He says all the recovered food was either rotten or expired.
Police confiscated a truck fitted with a cold room, two light delivery vehicles, one loaded with meat, and an empty LDV on the scene, as well as seven freezers, including repackaged wheat, flower and maize meal, stickers, and pricing machine believed to be used during repackaging.
As part of Grobler's bail conditions, he must surrender all his travel documents and report to his local police station every Monday.
Lieutenant Colonel Nkosi says the matter was remanded to 27 March, allowing investigators to conduct a thorough investigation.
The Mpumalanga Provincial Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major General Nico Gerber, commended the team for a sterling job by stopping the expired and rotten food from being sold for human consumption, thus preventing another catastrophe.
"The postponement will allow our members to conduct a thorough investigation and identify other people that fell prey to this inhumane act," he added.
