LAHORE:
Punjab Food Authority is planning to introduce a monogram that will be printed on packaged food products imported, manufactured and sold in Lahore, The Express Tribune has learnt.
PFA Director General Asad Islam Mahani said this would be a mark of quality assurance. He said they were planning to present the case for approval before the authority’s board meeting in around two weeks.
The PFA has designed a monogram that it wants printed on packaged food items sold in the city. Food manufactured in other cities and imported from abroad to be sold in Lahore will be stamped with the monogram as well.
The authority is presently working on issuing licences to companies manufacturing food products in the city. The licence doubles as quality certification by the PFA. They are issued after the authority ensures that the quality standards set by the PFA are adhered to.
According to PFA’s data shared earlier this year, there are 221 factories that package food items in Lahore. Most of these factories are in Nishter Town (85) and Allama Iqbal Town (52). The PFA does not certify products manufactured elsewhere.
Previously firms were supposed to obtain certification from the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority. Under the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority Act 1996, the authority charged Rs1,000 for a product certification mark, Rs5,000 as licence fee, 0.05 per cent of the ex-factory price of a manufactured item for marking fee, and Rs5,000 for inspection fee.
The PSCQA certification was not mandatory.
The PFA is yet to decide the rates it will charge for product certification marks.
PFA Director General Mahani according to law, they were supposed to certify products sold in Lahore. He said the authority had observed that expired food products or products close to the date of expiry were being imported and sold in the country. “How can we allow such products to be sold in Lahore?”
He said there were also firms, which did not adhere to PFA quality standards, who manufactured their products elsewhere but sold them in the city. He said they had prepared a proposal to deal with that too.
He said initially it will be up to the firms to see if they wanted to print the PFA’s monogram on their products. “It will not be mandatory,” he said, “Because we don’t want to give the impression that we’re generating revenue from the monogram printing exercise.”
The monogram will help consumers identify quality food products, the Punjab Food Authority director general said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2014.
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