Tainted food worth millions discarded in 2022, says PFA report

LAHORE:Punjab Food Authority (PFA) stopped the production of 2,159 food businesses and disposed of adulterated and unwholesome food worth millions of rupees during the current year, 2022.

This was informed by the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Wednesday while sharing the annual performance report 2022. In the report, the authority has covered the activities of the operations wing, food lab, medical lab and trading school.According to statistics, the provincial food regulatory body discarded 2,451,643 litre impure milk, 77,366 litre rinsed oil; 142,577kg substandard meat, 67,136kg tainted spices and 66,195kg pulses. Further, PFA uprooted unhealthy vegetable crops by ploughing on 18,080 marla land for irrigating vegetables with sewerage and industrial wastewater.

PFA Director General Muddassir Riaz Malik said the authority discarded unhealthy food for failing to meet the food safety and quality standards. He also informed that the food authority imposed hefty fines on 4,526 cafes, restaurants, tuck shops and other eateries at the motorway service area over multiple violations.He said that PFA had approved 2,197 food labels and registered 1,420 food products during the current year. The Punjab Food Authority also conducted around 56,446 medical screening tests of food handlers/workers among 531 people found ill who were suffering from hepatitis and tuberculosis (TB), he added.

Moreover, the Training Schools of PFA had given Level-1 Training to 45,237 workers and Level-2 training to 2,914 people in Punjab. Furthermore, PFA examined 21,345 food samples in the Food Laboratory among 10,030 samples found up to the required standards, however, 11,288 samples remained failed to meet the standards.

The authority is struggling day and night to make a healthy Punjab as per the vision of the Punjab government, DG said, adding PFA is also trying hard to make strict rules as punishment against the violators, especially adulterators.