65 outlets fined over violation of food laws

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority sealed another two food businesses in its ongoing operation against unhygienic food points and food processing units here on Tuesday.

The food regulatory authority also penalised 65 eateries with a heavy fine ticket. The action was taken against them for not following food laws. Additional Director General (operations) Rafia Haider said a food safety team raided a factory at Kroll Ghatti on secret information of PFA vigilance cell and caught red-handed factory’s employees preparing adulterated sauces and ketchup of famous brands, besides wrong labelling and poor sanitation.

She said the team found contamination of non-food grade colours, chemicals and other harmful products in ketchup and sauces which are not fit for human consumption. The team found blue-coloured drums there which are not good for health, she added.

The PFA discarded 1,100 kilograms of inferior quality ketchup and sauces and 55-litre citric acid during a raid. A PFA enforcement team sealed a King Edward University’s canteen over failure to meet food standards and to maintain hygienic working environment, she said and added PFA’s watchdogs sealed it for a poor storage system and abundance of insects and presence of washroom in the processing area. The food safety teams served warning notices for improvement on 411 food points on minor violations of the food act, she added.

Malnutrition: The Punjab government is committed to making nutrition a priority in the province while the other provincial governments as well as the federal government are committed to it, and it is necessary that all the governments make considerable measures to overcome the issue of malnutrition.

Provincial Planning and Development Secretary Iftikhar Ali Sahoo said this while addressing the launching ceremony of a mass awareness campaign “Umeed Say Aagay: Promoting Mother and Child Wellness in the First Thousand Days and Beyond” at P&D Complex here on Tuesday.

The provincial secretary stressed the need for creating awareness among the general public about the endemic, and about how it affected mothers and children of Punjab. The secretary explained how critical the issue of malnutrition was for the nation’s development, and he resolved to make efforts to end it. A large number of government officials, development partners, civil society representatives, academia and journalists from Punjab and Islamabad attended event.

tree plantation: A tree plantation campaign was started at University of Engineering & Technology (UET) here on Tuesday.

Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Fazal Ahmad Khalid inaugurated the campaign by planting a tree while UET’s Al-Khawarizmi Institute of Computer Science (KICS) Director Dr Waqar, Punjab Forest Department Divisional Forest Officer Saleem Malik and Electrical Engineering Department Dean Prof Dr Sohail Aftab also planted trees. Prof Fazal Ahmad said plantation should not be taken as tradition but it should be considered as national and moral obligation.