Daily Times

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA)on Saturday conducted province-wide crackdown, inspecting the production of food commodities, sale of prohibited products and examining the quality of food at local shops, production units and restaurants in 36 districts of Punjab.

The authority closed down 21 food businesses and penalized 76 food business operators besides imposing a cumulative fine of Rs 713,500 over lack of adequate food hygiene. Out of the 21 business sealed, two each were located in Lahore, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Rawalpindi, seven in Gujranwala, four in Multan and one each in Faisalabad and Sargodha. In Lahore, two poultry sale centers were sealed for not adopting proper slaughtering system, abundance of insects, presence of cats in shops, usage of blue drums and failure to maintain a hygienic working environment. Apart from that, workers of both shops did not have medical certificates and food license. The PFA teams imposed Rs128,000 fine on 15 food points and served improvement notices on 55 shops. They discarded more than 33,000 kilograms of adulterated and unsafe food items, including milk, eggs, snacks, sweets, oil,yogurt, pepper, chemicals, meat, salt, gutka and other items.

PFA Director General Noor ul Amin Mengal said that all food outlets including production units, bakeries, restaurants and other food points were sealed over adulteration in food, standard food items, sale of banned products and hygiene issues. He said the PFA teams discarded more than 20,000 kilograms of adulterated pickle in Multan division, approximately 11,250 litres of frozen milk in Muzaffargarh and other adulterated products during different raids. He appreciated the work of the operations and vigilance wings in dealing with the ‘blacksheep’ without any fear. He said that the PFA is empowered to take action against the adulterators to ensure safety of food from production to the consumption stage. He said the PFA will not allow anyone to violate the food standards defined in the law. The PFA is promoting safe food handling through awareness programs and tanning sessions for food handlers, the DG added.

Published in Daily Times, April 15^th 2018.