PFA seals 11 food outlets over various violations

LAHORE: To control adulteration and sale of substandard food stuff, the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) carried out raids in Lahore and Faisalabad divisions on Thursday.

PFA officials said at least 11 food points were sealed in Faisalabad and five food businesses, including two food manufacturing units, a milk shop and two restaurants, were sealed in the provincial metropolis. In Faisalabad, a special food safety team, under the supervision of Additional Director-General (Operations) Rafia Haider, raided a jaggery factory and sealed it for preparing adulterated jaggery by mixing contamination of poor quality of glucose and rongalite (rangkat).

The raiding team also discovered the presence of insects, unavailability of record and medical certificates of its workers and improper cleanliness arrangements. In Jhang, a fake juice factory was sealed for producing fizzy drinks. The factory’s employees were preparing juices with textile colours, rotten mangoes and artificial sweetness.

The violation of the provincial food act like poor storage system, wrong labelling, usage of blue drums and poor sanitation was also witnessed. The operation was also held to control sale of prohibited tobacco products ‘gutka’ and at least nine paan shops were sealed.

ADG Operations Rafia Haider said the PFA teams sized 6,000 packs of gutka, discarded 3,000-kg gur and 819 packets of mango juices and raw material of 3000 juices. She said the PFA will deal the violators with an iron hand. “Our teams are fully active to ensure availability of quality products and the purpose of the raids is to ensure PFA ban on selling gutka,” she said.

In Lahore, a PFA team in Shama Park unearthed a fake carbonated drink manufacturing factory and sealed it. The factory was sealed for producing soft drinks of prominent brands and overusing chemicals, textile colours and artificial flavours.

PFA also officials confiscated 2500 bottles, chemicals and other harmful products from the spot. The confiscated bottles of different brands were meant to be supplied to the shops in the suburbs of the city, but PFA foiled the attempt, the ADG operations said and added the authority has sealed more than 100 fake carbonated factories in the current year.

The PFA also sealed a ketchup and mayonnaise factory on Multan Road for using starch, cosmetic colours and chemicals. It sent samples of ketchup and mayonnaise for laboratory test and further action would be taken after the report. As many as 8,000kg ketchup was seized in the raid, the ADG said, adding a milk shop was sealed in Iqbal Town Neelam Block for selling adulterated milk. Apart from that, workers of the shop did not have medical certificates. Moreover, two restaurants were closed down by the authority over unhygienic conditions and non-compliance with the instructions of PFA. Both the restaurants were operating in the Jorray Pul area. PFA’s officials also penalised 69 shopkeepers and served warning notices on 642 outlets in both divisions over minor violations during raids.