Today, Wednesday, an official from the Sulaimani's Ranya Mayorship joint committee that is made up of the security forces, medical teams, and inspectors, told KurdSat English that “Ranya Security (Asaysh) notified us of Ana Factory’s intention to ship loads of pickles, and specialized teams took a sample of the pickle, and found out that they were expired and covered with mold, making it inedible.”

"The factory had almost 70 tons of expired pickle," the official added. The pickles were stored in plastic barrels.

"The factory tried to ship the pickle to Erbil, and per our regulations, any food shipment that leaves our administrative boundaries would be checked before it can leave," the Ranya official said.

Another official with the Ranya joint committee to monitor safety regulations said, “the factory owner told us of his plan to move the pickles out, and we tested that it was expired and needed to be destroyed.”

Expired food products are common in the Kurdistan region, as food monitoring is scarce since every time a team leaves to check for expired food find loads of contaminated edibles. 

A barrel of pickle covered with mold found at a factory in Ranya, Sulaimani