Meats and medicines ruined in power cut

The power cut in Mosta that lasted 24 hours last weekend cost four companies more than €25,000 in spoilt stock. “We had a cold room full of frozen meats and had to throw it all away – enough to fill the whole store,” said Isaac Mallia, owner of Dayfresh Meats. Mr Mallia disposed of €15,000 worth of frozen goods after the outage turned his cold room into a “sauna” over the warm summer’s night. Lights went out in Mosta a few minutes before midnight last Friday after technical complications arose with one of Enemalta’s high tension cables. Business owners were annoyed because they were repeatedly told by customer care operators that the power would be restored shortly. “We waited for 24 hours! ‘In an hour or so, in an hour or so...’ We waited all day and got nowhere,” exclaimed Owen Borg, a butcher at Dayfresh who had spent several hours preparing a display of marinated meats the previous afternoon only to find it had all gone rotten by the following morning. “It’s barbecue season and the weekend is obviously our busiest time so we were fully loaded – we usually sell everything,” Mr Borg said as he dragged the remaining boxes of spoilt rib eye that had thawed overnight. “We are...