Food destined for dump sickens 100 in S.Africa squatter camp

There’s a reason expired and recalled food is supposed to be dumped in a secure manner.

Associated Press reports cookies, candies, jams and juice destined for a dump instead went to Themba Mgodla as payment for loading a truck. Only some of the goods he planned to sell in his squatter camp turned out to be a decade old, sickening more than 100 people.

Desperate for work, Mgodla said he had gone to a factory food shop seeking employment. A driver there was supposed to take the food items to a dump, but offered to let Mgodla have the load in exchange for helping put it on a truck.

He planned to sell the food, not knowing that some of the expiration dates went as far back as 2000. Once he got to his squatter camp, some of his hungry neighbors snatched goods from him.