Poisonous food: Some sweets sold in Kohat may cause cancer

Food authority says most schools in district lack filtered water facilities

PESHAWAR: Be careful when consuming sweets produced by some bakeries in Kohat since they may be using colour in the production process which may cause cancer.

This advisory was issued by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety Authority (K-PFSA) on Sunday.

The advisory warns that a majority of bakeries in Kohat are selling sweets prepared by using non-food colours which, according to experts, may cause cancer.

The advisory also included details of progress made by the Kohat team of the authority in the past month.

K-PFSA Deputy Director Kamran Khan said almost half of the food outlets in the district they had inspected had fined, were for using non-food colours. It added that since March 29, the K-PFSA had so far inspected 158 locations in Kohat. Of these, 16 were penalised with fines of Rs540,000 imposed. Moreover, 127 improvement notices were also served to eateries.

The authority disposed of about 360 kilogrammes of contaminated sweets, and 160 litres of adulterated milk during the operations.

Kamran further said that the authority’s teams also found the presence of rodent faeces and poor hygiene conditions in the production area of eateries for which owners were fined.

“Seven of all outlets fined were for using non-food grade colours in sweets, ice-creams and meals, while the remaining were due to mislabeling, usage of china salt and rusted utensils,” the K-PFSA official said.

Bakeries and restaurants were the prime targets of the authority, with its teams visiting 57 such outlets. Moreover, 32 schools, 30 general stores, 23 milk and meat shops while 16 factories, mostly of ice-cream and poppadum, were inspected in Kohat.

The official said around 90 per cent of schools inspected lacked facility for filtered water, compelling the students to drink tap water.  Food experts from K-PFSA issued improvement notices for below par conditions to food outlets.

Moreover, they guided the management of these outlets to improve the situation.

The team imposed a fine if the earlier communicated directives were not followed.

“There was no compromise on adulteration and usage of any harmful substance during production,” Kamran said, adding that such outlets were fined and may permanently be sealed for repeat offences.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 23^rd, 2018.