The court led by Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) Magistrate Munir Chowdhury also seized a large quantity of stale meat and fined five meat-sellers at city's Karnaphuli Market in Agrabad area.

Sources said the owners of Abedin Traders, Yeasin Brothers and East Asiatic Trading Company had long been storing different date-expired food items including dates to sell them during the Ramadan. The magistrate found the godowns and cold storage very unhygienic and dirty too.

Earlier on Monday, Magistrate Munir in a daylong drive at city's biggest kitchen market Reazuddin Bazar seized five metric tons of date-expired and rotten dates.