Ensuring food safety

The PFA sealed 640 food points and had production stopped at 344 food outlets in September alone

The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) is doing a good job by regularly checking the quality of food at restaurants and manufacturing units. The importance of ensuring food safety can be gauged from the fact that most visitors to developing countries from advanced countries eat only at the high-end hotels where they stay. Otherwise, they eat only peanuts and bananas. We expect other provinces too to undertake regular inspections of food points to ensure food safety. The PFA sealed 640 food points and had production stopped at 344 food outlets in September. In the same period, food safety teams imposed fines worth over Rs19 million on food business operators for violations of PFA regulations. Notices were served to 32,963 eateries while carrying out routine inspection drives across the province. PFA Director General Captain (retd) Mohammad Usman said PFA teams inspected as many as 40,526 food points in all 36 districts of Punjab. These included dairy shops, ice-cream parlours, general stores, bakeries, poultry shops, confectionery shops and food manufacturing units.

In September, food safety officials seized the carcass of a dead animal while it was being transported to Lahore from Kasur. The carcass weighed around 500kg. The PFA also carried out an inspection of 144 production units of Jams and pickles. Around 2,640 kgs of jams were found affected by fungi and 873 kgs of pickles unfit for human consumption. Fines were slapped on 26 production units for failing to adhere to health safety rules. As many as 82 food production units in Lahore zone, 29 in Rawalpindi, 26 in Multan and seven in Muzaffargarh were inspected. Food manufacturing units were sealed for using rotten stuff and for the use of prohibited chemicals. Dead flies and mosquitoes were found in pickles. In any case, excessive intake of food should be avoided. A man wrote on a piece of paper, “I am a big eater. Today, I broke the world record,” and lost consciousness, which he never regained. 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 15^th, 2019.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.