Grading restaurants

While the PFA’s grading rubric is nascent, this is a good start to a healthier restaurant experience for Pakistanis

The year 2015 was an active one for the Punjab Food Authority (PFA). Around the middle of the year, it began shutting down restaurants that did not meet its standards of food quality with regards to food hygiene. In 2016, it appears that the PFA is continuing its efforts to standardise food quality in Punjab. Building on its earlier promise to issue a grading scheme for restaurants, it has now issued grades for approximately 85 establishments in Lahore. This is welcome and indicates that its announcements go beyond rhetoric and that it is an organisation willing to act on its intentions. The significance of food hygiene cannot be ignored by Pakistani restaurants. We have a plethora of natural ailments and 19^th century diseases that we continue to battle today; aspects of health that can be controlled should be a primary focus moving forward into the 21^st century and this includes ensuring that our food intake is of good quality.

Other provinces must follow suit in taking similar initiatives. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has begun some work in this regard, but a lot still remains to be done. The authorities in Sindh would serve the well-being of their citizens by introducing similar measures. Karachi in particular is home to thousands of restaurants, with little quality control checks in place to monitor their operations. While the PFA’s grading rubric is nascent and it may yet take some time to eliminate ambiguity by defining ‘quality’ ingredients and create a system to verify food sources, this is a good start to a healthier restaurant experience for Pakistanis. Perhaps the PFA and other food authorities should also note that many health departments in developed nations require restaurants to have clean restrooms and serve water free of cost — perhaps to eliminate the threat of legal liability and provide obvious basic safety measures in case of a choking patron. The function of our food authorities and health departments should include regular, year-round visits to restaurants in all categories. Once basic standardisation is in place for food safety, we can then look towards advancement in food science and food technology.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2016.

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