Daily Times

The Pakistan Food Authority (PFA)
is doing a marvellous job. I have a few quibbles but these are more about what they are not doing. First, I agree that all those eateries that charge more than Rs 1,000 for an entree should be treated most severely for their lapses. However, there are bad hygienic practices that we can see being divided into two broad categories: bad practices done for profit and bad practices done out of ignorance. These should be treated differently. But before I discuss more important stuff, let me first go on a semi-rant. They went after my old haunt of the King Edward Medical College/University (KEMC) canteen! Worse is that they ‘fined’ it heavily for, among other things, selling “post-expiry date fruits”. That at least is what was stated by Mr Sahi in an op-ed piece titled ‘Airing food chains’ dirty laundry’ (Daily Times, August 20, 2015). I learned something then: fruits come with expiry dates, or do they?
KEMC (as it was known in the old days) had a small canteen that only served medical students and junior doctors working in Mayo Hospital. It closed by sundown or soon thereafter. The menu was very limited: tea, sodas, patties, shami kababs, samosas, some rather dry pastries and pound cake of uncertain provenance. During the six years I spent in KEMC and in Mayo Hospital, many a pleasant hour was spent at the canteen chatting with friends, discussing politics, playing chess, bridge and the occasional game of ‘flash’. Most of the clientele were either day scholars or hostel residents, so few of us depended on the canteen for regular sustenance. But then the total strength of KEMC students was about 600. Today it is about three times as much so the canteen has also had to expand to cater to the larger number of students and house physicians. I do not think that patients and their families eat from the canteen.
The fact that the KEMC canteen was raided by the PFA is all for the best. It is, however, surprising that the large number of extremely well-educated and extremely responsible administrators in the hospital as well as the university, going all the way up to the Vice Chancellor (VC), never thought it worthwhile to check the quality of food being served to students. I am sure that it is a bunch of doctors that give out the contract for the canteen and it surprises me that nobody in the ‘chain of command’ suggests an examination of the premises for cleanliness and for the quality of food on offer. But then that I suppose is why KEMC is slip sliding away as a premier medical institution. If those that run it do not even care what their students get to eat when in the university then what else is it that they care about? All right, end of rant.
So, back to what I think is more important about the PFA raids. Besides checking hygiene, the quality of food, medical certificates of employees and other such things it is, in my opinion, equally if not more important to check whether the employees are getting at least the official minimum wage and whether the employees can read things like expiry dates on food containers. Any worker, cook or server, if not receiving a proper salary, has no interest in assuring quality. As a matter of fact, they might be inclined to go the other way as far as quality is concerned. And the uneducated worker, besides having no idea about expiry dates, also can rarely understand the importance of things like personal cleanliness and the relationship of that to the quality of food being served. One of the major ways that Hepatitis A and many other water borne diseases are spread is because of a lack of cleanliness among food workers, including even those who just wash dishes.
To expect underpaid and uneducated workers to stick to standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a pipe dream at best. More importantly, most of those working in such establishments live and eat in places that are essentially devoid of any cleanliness so most of them think that cleanliness and washing hands are all affectations of the rich and do not really matter. I am not denigrating the poor but the simple point I am trying to make is that food workers will usually behave in the work place the same way they behave at home. And, as far as this aspect of different food establishments is concerned, public education is more liable to be of long-term benefit. If the PFA wants to assure proper quality and hygiene at the KEMU canteen, it should levy a fine on the VC or the medical superintendent of Mayo Hospital depending on who is ultimately in charge of the canteen and then see how quickly things get fixed.
Excluding small roadside proprietor run eating places, others who employ a regular staff and charge a reasonable price for their food need to be checked for the usual things as well as the ones I have mentioned above. As far as very high priced places are concerned, these if found wanting need to be checked frequently. Clearly, such places are playing with the health of their patrons for the sake of profit. Most of them can hire workers who are educated and are paid enough to provide proper service. That brings me to some of the most popular eating places in Lahore — the snooty private clubs. When if ever will the PFA muster the courage to raid them and check the quality of their food and the hygiene in their kitchens? Or is the well being of these members and their guests not the responsibility of the PFA?
Finally, the PFA needs to get a better name. Something with a bit more ‘salt and pepper’. ‘Quality Of Roti Management Authority’ (QORMA) might be an interesting option.

The author is a former editor of the Journal of Association of Pakistani descent Physicians
of North America (APPNA)