PFA seals 19 food points over unhygienic conditions

Teams also discard adulterated milk, oil and other rotten food items

LAHORE: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has sealed 19 food premises and charged 77 shopkeepers with Rs576,500 cumulative fine owing to violate the provincial food law during raids on different food outlets across Punjab on Wednesday.

Following PFA Director General Noorul Amin’s direction, food safety teams visited thousands of food stalls, grocery stores, bakeries, confectioneries, production units, and factories for ensuring the implementation of food safety laws in Ramazan bazaars and open markets.

The PFA’s Lahore teams raided Sabzazar area and sealed Quality Beverage Company and Nadeem and Sons Pulp production unit for failing to produce food license and medical certificates of its workers, usage of non-food grade tanks and loose colour and unhygienic conditions. In another raid in New Samanabad, the PFA team closed Safa Foods Ketchup over adulteration in ketchup, the presence of washroom in store premises, ignorance of food preservation and safety standards, absence of effective safety measures and unhygienic working environment.

Further, the PFA sealed four food points in Multan and atataatGujranwala divisions, three in DG Khan including soda factory and sweet shops, two eateries in Faisalabad, one in Rawalpindi, and two food points sealed in Sargodha including a Khoya unit and soda water plant for not complying of the previous instructions of the authority and selling low quality products. An operation was conducted in its ongoing drive of checking food outlets.



The food safety watchdog imposed a collective fine of Rs576,500 on 77 food business operators for multiple food hygiene issues. The teams have issued fine tickets of Rs128,000 on nine eateries in Lahore, Rs18,000 fine on six shopkeepers in Multan, Rs67000 fine on 10 food premises in Rawalpindi, Rs40,000 fine in Sargodha, Rs184,500 fine on 18 FBOs in Gujranwala, Rs104,500 fine on 20 food outlets in DG Khan, Rs13,500 fine in Bahawalpur and Rs21,000 fine on six food points in Faisalabad.

The food safety teams also discarded 918 kilogrammes of rotten fruit and vegetables, 210 litres of adulterated milk, 888 kilogrammes of white flour, 40 litres of rancid oil, 500 kilogrammes khoya, 65 kilogrammes of sweets, 37 litres sugar syrup, 120 kilogrammes ice cream, 230 packs of gutka, 176 kilogrammes ghee, loose colour, artificial flavours, hundreds of litres beverages and other poor quality food products.

PFA also served warning notices on thousands of food points for improvement on the minor violations during the raid.

Meanwhile, Punjab Food Authority Chainman Amir Hayat Hiraj and PFA Director General Noorul Amin Mengal jointly paid visits to different Ramazan bazaars of the city where they inspected arrangements and termed the overall arrangements satisfactory.

They also visited different stalls, especially which have been set up from the food industry in makeshift markets (Ramazan bazaars) for consumers and selling their products at cheap rate.

The food safety teams conducted food tests of ketchup, spices and other essential commodities which were put on stalls.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2018.