The world seems to drift apart with the crucial situation of Covid-19, it’s not wrong to say that with every passing day we see a different crisis in the same disease. Coronavirus came as one disease that destroyed the entire world, every nation is struggling on its own; people do not have jobs, peoples job are at stakes with life risks anyways, they do not have enough to provide enough food for their families and in this whole scenario we have one more situation that does not go away and whose branches needs to be uprooted from the grounds, we have adulteration mafia ruining people’s lives without any stepping back from it. Thus they need to be controlled and strict law and orders need to take in place.
Pakistan is suffering from a lot of diseases including corruption, coronavirus etc but there are many other things included in our country counting bad politics, poor education system, patriarchy system etc but also the living one source food is extremely worse. Adulteration mafia being one of the cruelest human beings found on this planet! I mean what a chicken, they are those mafia who are underground and killing the innocent lives, they are the human termites who are eating the world silently. Which brings us to the question that why do people even earn? Why do people go beyond their limits and work even leaving behind their families and staying away from them, it is only to provide bread and butter to their family and if still we cannot have food free from adulteration than why are we even putting in so much efforts.
There are very few organizations working for the health of people and one of them is Punjab Food Authority (PFA) along with the vision and instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, PFA has done many operations to protect people’s health. Recently PFA launched an operation against chicken suppliers and confiscated the meat but this is one food adulteration only and let’s not forget that in our youth Chicken is the most eaten meat. This is a big concern for the families and parents whose children only live for chicken. The meat safety teams need to have a more strict check and balance just like bike squads or milk testing labs were introduced by PFA, there must be checkpoints for every food item that enters the city and vigilant checking must take place and the culprits must be caught red-handed. The irony is that not the small chicken suppliers but the buyers are of big named/titled brands.
Yes!!! The restaurants we go to and eat is no place to be unless you are sure about what is being served to you. But how can one be sure? PFA’s operation teams have been working round the clock and till now they have come up with many big names but we still cannot pay back for those who lost their lives due to consumption of unhealthy and unhygienic food. The use of germ-infested and dead meat was not fit for human consumption and it causes health problems. All confiscated unhygienic meat is set ablaze after putting into incinerator as per eco-friendly policy. Punjab Food Authority and the Health departments always instruct the citizens to buy fresh meat rather than chicken slaughtered and only get the chicken slaughtered infront of one’s own eyes. Meanwhile, the dairy safety teams have disposed of many litres of adulterated milk examined at a screening picket set up at different Bypass in the presence of DG in the past year also they intend to continue it for the coming years as well. The teams also detected the low level of Lactometer Reading in milk. The dairy safety teams have examined the milk collection chillers and mill supply vehicles to inspect the quality of milk. Teams found the low level of LR and fats in milk besides adulteration. PFA has been very clear about their intentions since its inception in 2011.
“The PFA is vigilantly monitoring the food industry including milk industry at all levels as per food law by placing pickets at the entry and exit points of the cities in Punjab,” said the Director General Punjab Food Authority. “The authority will not tolerate adulteration in milk at any cost.” During a massive crackdown, PFA watchdog team sealed many Milk Collection Centre in places for removing cream from milk and not having a food license. Many Foods Factory were closed down over fake labelling and use of substandard oil in the past few years. PFA has been playing a very vital role in not compromising the health of people. The PFA teams raided many schools and sealed its canteen for selling carbonated drinks which are unhealthy for any human but especially for children. Many general stores got shut down owing to sale of adulterated spices and expired items. Food is one important factor and these are only few that I have mentioned as being checked but there is still a lot of work which needs to be done on every level of department whether it is the health sectors or food authorities. Plus, people need to work on themselves too, if they see any food adulteration they need to inform the authorities that very moment rather than neglected the situation. People stand up for your own sake!!!