KP Food Authority seals KTH canteen

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Authority on Thursday inspected canteen and juice shop at the Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH) in Peshawar and sealed them over providing unhygienic food and juices to the patients and their attendants.

A press release said that the authority’s inspectors had visited a private canteen and juice shop in KTH a few times and issued them warnings to remove deficiencies and take care of the food.

The inspectors again inspected the canteen and found them cooking in unhygienic conditions and serving to customers.

An official of the authority said they were surprised as to how the hospital administration had allowed them to play with lives of people by offering food being cooked in an unhygienic condition.

When reached by phone, an official of the KTH on condition of anonymity said the owner of the canteen had been expelled almost a year ago but had occupied a major space and forcibly established canteen just in middle of the hospital.

He alleged the canteen owner had strong backup of corrupt officials of the hospital to set up canteen and fleece the customers, mostly patients and their attendants.

Meanwhile, the authority has started medical investigation of the food handlers seeking to identify communicable disease careers amongst the food handlers.

According to the spokesperson, a two-day food safety level-1 training has been arranged for food handlers where different techniques for food preservation and precautionary measures for food safety been taught.

The spokesperson added that the training batch consisted of employees of different hotels and restaurants who were running kitchens.

At the concluding ceremony, blood samples of all the participants have been taken for medical examination of communicable diseases like tuberculosis and hepatitis A and B.