Campaign against food adulteration from April 1

LAHORE
Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has planned to launch vigorous campaigns against adulterated and substandard edibles, especially cooking oil and ghee, beverages, milk and etc being sold in the provincial capital.
This was revealed by Dr Nasir Mehmood, Acting Director General of PFA while talking to newsmen here Friday. He said the campaign would be started on April 1, 2015 and would continue till April 15, 2015 while from April 16, 2015 a campaign against beverages will be launched and will continue till May 15, 2015. Dr Nasir said the PFA had prepared its calendar of events and all campaigns would be launched according to that.
‘PFA aims at ensuring safety and quality of all the food items and products. Working on scientific principles and international best practices, the PFA aims at ensuring food safety and quality in the entire food chain in collaboration with manufacturers, food business operators, consumers, government department, autonomous bodies and other stakeholders,’ he said.
He said during 2014, the authority took a total of 10,142 samples of different products, including milk, milk products, oil and fat, spices, beverages, fruit and vegetables, cereals, baking products, sweetening agents, water, colour and meat. Out of these, 10,142 samples 5,368 samples failed and these complaints were sent to magistrates. In 2012, a total of 2,276 samples were taken while in 2013, PFA took 9,838 samples, he maintained.
Dr Nasir Mehmood said that from July 2014 till Dec 2014, the PFA inspected 52,474 premises and a fine of Rs5.02 million was imposed on violators while 766 premises were sealed whereas from January 2015 till date the authority inspected 20,629 premises, imposed a fine of Rs2.36 million and sealed 16 of them.
Talking about the PFA achievements, he said out of 169 private water plants who are selling filtered water, 120 were sealed while out of 86 ice factories, 49 were sealed and 26 registered Soda Water plants had also been sealed. He said action was also taken against ketchups, including Shangrila, Mitchells, Dawn, Fine, Time, Prime, Lahori, Punjab Food and VIP brands. Products of some were recalled from the market, some were rectified and some were sealed.
Answering a question about PFA’s action against pasteurised milk and the allegations that the authority had penalised milk manufacturers to promote a specific brand, which was owned by the ruling class, he strongly dispelled this impression and said 42,791litre Dairy Omung, a product of Engro Foods Ltd and 35,571litre Dairy Pure, a product of Shakarganj were also recalled from the market and shops while action was taken against Gro-Aur, a product of Haleeb and Dairy Rozana, a product of Nurpur foods. However, he has failed to give any data that how many raids/inspections were carried out against the specific brand during the year 2014 as well as during the year 2015.
Replying to another question, he said a proposal of increasing the existing strength of the authority was under approval phase after which the authority would establish its offices in four new districts such as Multan, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.
Over a question regarding any proposed amendment(s) to the existing laws related to food, he said present laws were sufficient and there was no need of any amendment. He said the authority would launch a campaign against food graded wraps and packing as there were a lot of complaints that bakeries and sweet shops were using non-food graded wraps for packing, which may cause adverse effects on human health.
He said the authority had planned to run awareness activities, including installation of two or three bill boards on which toll-free number for complaints would be advertised. Awareness seminars will also be organised in big cities of the province, he concluded.