PFA seals ice cream unit for using tea whitener

LAHORE: Punjab Food Authority (PFA) Wednesday sealed several food businesses including production unit of a famous ice-cream brand for using tea whitener in place of milk and for not meeting hygiene standards.

The PFA teams visited various frozen desserts, ice-creams and milkshake points and examined the food quality and hygiene standards. Over failure to meet the standards, all branches of Ice Land were shut down in Faisal Town, Johar Town, DHA and Iqbal Town.

The teams also sealed a production unit in Khuda Bakhsh Colony and Frozen Factory in Manawan on wrong labelling of products. Punjab Food Authority Director General Noor-ul-Amin Mengal said no milk was found in Ice Land’s branches during the inspection. Tea whitener was being used in the preparation of milkshakes, ice-creams and desserts. Similarly, Frozen Factory was sealed for using ice-cream word on the frozen dessert which was produced with vegetable fats. He said PFA would not allow anyone for selling frozen desserts as ice-cream by deceiving the customers.

Meanwhile, PFA has sealed 13 food businesses and imposed fine tickets of Rs6,61,800 to more than 60 food premises for not complying with the PFA’s institutions and over failure to maintain the hygienic working environment. Out of 13 sealed food points, three were sealed in Multan, four in Gujranwala, five in Rawalpindi and one each in DG Khan and Faisalabad divisions.

During the crackdown, the PFA teams also observed multiple food safety issues including use of non-food grade colour in sweets, use of rotten vegetables and cooking food in rancid oil. Apart from that, workers of the food outlets did not have medical certificates.

A huge quantity of substandard food including 800kg spices (chaat masala), 130kg pepper, 350kg raw material, 50kg Chinese salt, 219 litres soft drinks, 10kg pickles and 100 litres adulterated milk was also discarded.