OFFICIALS from the Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) yesterday closed down a local bakery, SAAS, after it was discovered that it has been in operations for 35 years without being registered and certified by the bureau.

The move is part of a countrywide operation by the bureau to bring to book all manufacturers and food processors operating without a TBS quality mark owing to not meeting mandatory standards of their products.

In yesterday's operation, the owner of the bakery admitted the offence of operating since 1977 without bothering to seek certification from relevant authorities even after TBS's one month notice issued to enforce compliance last April.

"It is true that I have been operating for such a long time without obtaining certification of the products' standards, but please give more time to fulfill them," pleaded Mr Sharrif Ally Abdallah Saleh (SAAS), owner of the bakery.

The facility, with eight staff and a production capacity of 900 loaves of bread a day, boasted to have been supplying the products to city consumers, including an army unit in Temeke municipality.

TBS Quality Assurance Officer, Ms Matrona Emmanuel, told reporters at the bakery premises in Temeke Kwa Aziz Ally that, apart from lacking certification, the bakery operated in an unhygienic environment, with staff not putting on proper uniforms recommended for such activity.

"We have also noted that the production arrangement is not good and the production environment is not certified either. The owner needs to make sure that all these shortcomings are fully addressed before a licence is granted to resume production," she said.

Bakeries, she insisted, must operate in hygienic conditions including ensuring that staff put on special gloves and other protective gear as stated in Tanzania Standard number 102 of 2012 governing backing of breads.