Special ‘Meat Safety Task Force’ launched

LAHORE: Taking a big step, Provincial Food Minister Bilal Yasin on Thursday launched the special ‘Meat Safety Task Force’ in Punjab Food Authority (PFA) in order to provide healthy meat to people of the province.

While talking to media after the launch, the minister said a special meat safety task force consisting of meat specialist doctors will ensure detailed inspection of the meat supplied across Punjab.

Bilal Yasin said that meat safety teams will conduct detailed inspections of slaughter houses, frozen meat units, meat shops, and meat processing units on a daily basis. The Special Task Force will check the meat supplied at the entry points and meat markets of all districts including Lahore. A complete record of traceability of meat coming from poultry farms, slaughter houses will also be compiled and strict checking of entry points will be ensured in the morning hours.

The food minister said that Punjab Food Authority discarded 60,000 kg of substandard meat during checking of meat shops and entry points during the last few days. He said that elements hostile to health will never be allowed to do business and continuous checking is going on to ensure quality milk, meat and food.

He said a historic reduction of Rs800 in the price of a 20 kg bag of flour was ensured and the common man was getting all the fruits of our efforts. He added that steps were being taken to reduce the price of chicken, however, chicken was available in Lahore at Rs100 less than Peshawar, but the price will be brought down further.

Bilal Yasin claimed that the Punjab government was planning to ban the export of chicks so that the prices of chicken come down within the country. Answering the question, the minister said that due to weather changes, the process of harvesting wheat has not started properly. Due to the high moisture content of wheat, it cannot be procured immediately. In a few days, wheat will be procured when the moisture content reaches 10% as per the wheat procurement policy.

Out of nearly four lakh applications received on the Bardana App, around 121,000 applications have been approved by the Punjab Land Records Authority after verification and these farmers will be given Bardana.

The government purchases less than 10% of the total wheat historically and we will again procure wheat despite the availability of carry-forward stocks but the moisture content should be up to 10% as per the policy.

He said that the food department was taking care that the prices of wheat remain stable in the market and I am telling this on the basis of verified information that the price of wheat in Punjab was stable.

In response to a question, the minister said that the government has taken many measures to provide relief to the people during first 40 days of the PMLN government. The caretaker federal government imported wheat which was a damaging decision and it should be investigated.