KOTA KINABALU: A magistrate's court has fined a hypermarket RM2,800 after it was found selling Taiwanese eggplants with pesticide levels exceeding legal limits.
Magistrate Marilyn Kelvin heard the case yesterday, with the hypermarket representative admitting to the charge under Rule 41(3)(a) of the Food Regulations 1985.
The law permits fines of up to RM10,000 or a maximum jail term of two years for such offences.
According to the Borneo Post, the incident occurred on June 10 in Penampang, where the eggplants had 0.1240mg/kg of Cypermethrin, surpassing the approved limit of 0.03mg/kg.
The hypermarket requested a lenient sentence and promised to implement special pesticide residue testing on products from suppliers before selling them.