Counterfeit cold drinks and China salt discarded

MARDAN: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety & Halal Food Authority (FS & HFA) on Wednesday discarded over 50,000 liters of counterfeit and substandard cold drinks, nearly 4,000 kilogram of China salt, over 6000 packs of low quality pops along with 1200 kg of mislabeled reels seized in operations during the last three months.

According to a handout, Deputy Director FS & HFA Mardan Division, Kamran Khan, said over 50,000 liters of counterfeited cold drinks of multinational brands along with substandard beverages were seized in 13 raids across the Mardan district.

He said 172 sacks of China salt weighing nearly 4000 kg were recovered from several godowns in eight different operations adding that mislabeled reels amounting to 1200 kg were seized from 21 ice-cream and pops industries.

The official said the low quality pops were seized from dozens of shops and pops industries located across Mardan. He said the discarding took place at a designated spot.Kamran Khan said the FS & HFA field teams were committed to providing safe and hygienic food to the people and the quality of food was being monitored regularly by daily inspections.

President All Sweets and Bakers Association Mardan Division, Ghulam Habib Salarzai and President Khwaja Gunj Bazaar, Jehanzeb Khan along with other traders and officials of FS&HFA were present on the occasion to witness the discarding activity.

The traders vowed to support the FS&HFA against any culprits operating in the guise of traders and playing with the health of the masses for small gains.