Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority Tuesday seized over 4,000 litres of substandard and fake energy drinks during a raid on a processing unit in the Charsadda Road area of Peshawar.

The unit was producing fake energy drinks in the bottles and labels of multinational companies.

According to Director General Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety Authority Shahrukh Ali Khan, the authority has intensified the crackdown against fake and substandard carbonated drinks ahead of Ramzan-ul-Mubarak.

The Food Safety team during the raid with packed bottles of energy drinks also confiscated packing material and locally made filling machines. The unit is used to supply energy drinks to various areas of the cities. The condition of the unit was also found very unhygienic.

In addition, the crackdown against the adulteration mafia was also carried out in the rest of the province. The Food Safety teams inspected various food-related businesses in Charssada and imposed heavy fines on a number of shops for carrying expired food products.

According to Food Safety Authority, a number of other shops were served with warning notices for improvement. Similarly, the KP FS&HFA teams also carried out awareness and training sessions for food handlers in various districts of the province; where they were sensitized on the basic hygiene principles, and provided them the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for their relevant businesses.

Director-General KP FS&HFA Shahrukh Ali Khan said due to the high demand for beverages in the holy month of Ramadan-ul-Mubarak, the Authority is making sure that the customers must get safe and standard products in the market.

He said during the recent crackdowns against such setups with substandard products has so far resulted in the discard of thousands of liters of fake and substandard beverages, while a number of such units have been sealed.