Vendors sell ‘poison’ in name of cold drinks

PFA spokesperson says roadside stalls are encroachments and

removing them is responsibility of department concerned

LAHORE

Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has ‘exempted’ roadside or makeshift vendors selling drinkable items in the provincial capital from following all rules and regulations resulting in serious health hazards for the citizens.

With the increase in mercury, hundreds of roadside vendors have emerged across the city selling drinkable items such as Kanji, Imli Alu Bukhara Sharbat, Nimbo Pani, Sattoo, Pehlwani Sharbat, Sardai, Kachi Lassi, ice ball and etc. Majority of these vendors are not observing any food law and running their business in severely unhygienic conditions.

Citizens who purchase drinks from these vendors to quench their thirst are unaware of the fact that they may catch a contagious or infectious disease(s) from this activity due to one or another reason such as improper washing of utensils, use of tap water, no blood screening of the vendor as well as his subordinates who are serving; use of industrial colours, no food licence and etc.

Sources in PFA revealed that the authority has so far not asked its operations team to kick off a drive against these vendors who are openly selling ‘poison’ to the citizens. It is pertinent to mention here that none of these vendors are registered with the PFA and didn’t submit health certificates of their cooks, servers and food handlers. This simply means that anyone drinking from these outlets is facing a serious health risk.

Majority of street vendors use glass utensils and wash them in a pot after use while some use paper glasses. These vendors also use unhygienic ice, some use industrial colours, some also put back the remaining drink in the main source.

“Source of water used in roadside drinks is tap water, which is highly risky for human consumption,” said a senior official in PFA seeking anonymity. He said the authority always avoided starting any campaign against roadside vendors because of politically motivated reasons. He said that according to the rules, any person handling food in any hotel, restaurant, shop or any other public eating place is required to provide a health certificate to the authority but in this case PFA didn’t exercise its authority.

“Under the law, any person related to food business should obtain an NOC after submitting their medical tests, including hepatitis, complete liver function tests, complete blood culture, skin allergy test, urine test, alcohol test, eyes test, chest x-rays, typhoid test and TB test,” he said, adding roadside vendors are exempted from this rule.

The official claimed that it is very hard to count the exact number of roadside stalls and food spots because these increase or decrease every day. Anyone can start a food business anywhere in the city and it only needs a little investment and will.

The interest of the PFA can be gauged from the fact that even an awareness drive to educate the general public from the hazardous impacts of consuming roadside drinks from such spots was not launched. The authority is only focusing on big businesses, hotels, restaurants and etc.

When contacted, PFA’s spokesperson said that roadside stalls are encroachments and removing them is the first responsibility of the department concerned. “We are a monitoring agency and we can’t arrest people on our own,” PFA spokesman said, adding SOPs have already been made for all food related businesses.

“We have repeatedly asked traffic police, town administrations, local government and LDA to remove roadside vendors as well as moving carts selling edibles in the city because they come in the category of encroachments,” spokesman said. He said the authority had already launched a drive against manufacturers of soda, which is main ingredient of these street vendors and dozens have been arrested in this regard. He concluded that PFA regularly inspected registered street spots selling drinkable while action will also be taken against these street vendors with the help of other departments.