‘Focus on checking milk, ghee and flour’

BAHAWALPUR:

The Bahawalpur Divisional Food Authority’s performance has been the best in the province as of late, Punjab Food Authority Divisional Chairman Alam Daad Laleka said on Sunday.

He was addressing a meeting of the Divisional Food Authority. Commissioner Saqib Zafar, lawmakers Mehmood Cheema and Kazim Pirzada attended the meeting.

Laleka issued instructions to members of the divisional task force to make sure that all food vendors in the district have obtained licence to practice and medical certificates for their employees from the Health Department. He said strict punishments to violators would be handed out under the Punjab Food Ordinance (Amended).



He asked the task force to focus on monitoring of the quality of milk, ghee and flour sold to restaurants and at shops throughout the division. “All bakeries in the area must be inspected,” Laleka said.

Commissioner Saqib Zafar told participants of the meeting that the divisional task force had issued Rs8 million fines to violators and police had registered FIRs against 114 food vendors and restaurant owners caught selling inferior quality food in the last 15 days. Zafar said 326 food joints and two flour mills in Rahim Yar Khan were sealed and 74 people were arrested during September.

The commissioner said 33 people caught selling meat unfit for consumption had been arrested this month and 5,000kg meat had been destroyed.

Zafar said they were trying to ensure implementation of rules and regulations pertaining to the food industry. “We will make sure no violators escape the crackdown we have launched.”

Later, Laleka told journalists that the authority was monitoring the performance of members of the divisional task force.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th,  2015.