RCB fails to check outlets selling substandard food items

Shops sell meat of sick and unhealthy animals with impunity

RAWALPINDI:

The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB)’s food department has failed to enforce hygiene laws as food outlets including hotels, restaurants, bakeries, sweet shops and stalls continue to sell substandard edibles unchecked.

Food outlets and roadside stalls sell unhygienic edibles with impunity as the RCB’s food enforcement department has turned a blind eye to the ongoing malpractice.

Interestingly, shops sell the meat of sick, malnourished and unhealthy animals after slaughtering them locally and without taking them to the abattoir, where doctors check the health of the animals.

The RCB food department also does not have the expert staff or a mobile lab to prevent the sale of chemicals adulterated milk, disease-causing meat, adulterated spices, confectionaries and other edibles being sold on roadside stalls,

The sale of adulterated food items and edibles is rampant across the RCB jurisdiction.

The RCB food department has also failed to check the dirty kitchens of small hotels and restaurants, which continue to sell food items in total disregard for hygiene.

The staff of these food outlets continues to flout laid down SOPs and hygiene requirements as staff serves customers without covering their heads.

People belonging to lower and middle-income groups eat and purchase food from roadside stalls, small hotels, bakeries and sweet shops.

This causes serious illnesses and infections among people belonging to low-income groups, and most of them are denied treatment at the Cantonment General Hospital.

RCB Food Quality Control Department in charge Chaudhry Haroon said that they continue to discard adulterated milk during raids. He said that raids were also under way who illegally slaughter sick and malnourished animals and sell their meat.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 16^th, 2022.