Daily Times

LAHORE: The sale of unhygienic and emaciated chicken meat is still continuing at several shops despite several claims of the local government and the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) regarding curbs put on the practice. Chicken meat retailers are selling unhygienic and germs-infested meat to customers by befooling them. According to reports, these retailers slaughter diseased and even deceased chicken in advance and sell it people by mixing it with fresh chicken meat. This scribe observed this practice during a visit to several shops on Monday. When inquired, they denied selling sick and emaciated chicken meat to the people and said the purpose of slaughtering chicken in advance was to provide “swift service to consumer” and save their own time. They said that the demand of chicken meat was on the rise these days due to the wedding season, and added that hundreds of thousands of kilogrammes of chicken meat was being sold on a daily basis. To meet the demand of consumers, a huge quantity of chicken comes from environmental controlled poultry farms located in the outskirts of the city – and at times other cities – on a daily basis. PFA spokesperson Qaiser Abbas said that the department’s inspection teams were fully active against those supplying emaciated and unhealthy chicken to local shopkeepers in city. In this regard, the PFA teams held special pickets at entry points of the city, he said. He said that citizens should ensure that the chicken they were buying was fresh and healthy. “One way of doing that is by getting the chicken slaughtered in front of you.” Meanwhile, a PFA team on Monday confiscated more than 400kg emaciated chicken that was being moved to Tollinton Market from Manga Mandi.