Megastores continue selling loose spices

Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has allowed the big wholesale stores to sell loose spices, whereas, strict action is going on against small shopkeepers for selling loose spices.

During a visit to one of the biggest wholesale store of the provincial capital at Thokar, sale of open spices in drums was going one and people were purchasing the spices. Interestingly, PFA recently banned sale of open spices across the province to counter adulteration and launched a massive crackdown, confiscating and discarding thousands of kilograms of open spices.

When asked, a salesman of the store claimed that PFA had allowed the store to sell loose spices and directed it to just mention expiry date on the drums which had been done by the store management.

Similar practice can be witnessed at the three other stores of the same chain store situated at Ravi Road, Model Town and DHA while many other big grocery stores located on Model town Link Road, Wapda Town, Allama Iqbal Town, Johar Town and Fortress Stadium.

Jamil Ahmed, who opened a small grocery store in a small room of his house in the Green Town area, said that a team of PFA came for checking his small shop and discarded all open spices he had brought from a big wholesale store situated at Model Town. He said when he told the PFA team that he brought open spices from the store. He questioned the team why the store was selling loose spices, the PFA team refused to listen and discarded his stock.

The News has repeatedly tried to contact PFA Director General Capt ® Usman to get his point of view over the issue but he didn’t attend the call. Several text messages and whatsapp messages and pictures of the open spices being sold at the big store were also sent to him, which he received but didn’t reply to a single SMS till the story going to the press.

Meanwhile, in a province-wide crackdown, 16 khoya production units were shut down by the PFA on account of adulteration here on Friday. The drive was launched on the directions of PFA Director General Captain (R) Muhammad Usman.

Dairy safety teams of PFA inspected 280 production units in a day-long operation across Punjab.

According to details, PFA visited 208 units in Lahore Zone, 191 units in Rawalpindi Zone, 81 in Multan Zone and 42 in Muzaffargarh Zone. PFA officials shut down 16 khoya units and punished 44 shopkeepers with heavy fines over failure to meet food safety standards and violating the rules of the provincial food law.

Enforcement teams also destroyed 482 litre adulterated milk, 265 litre harmful milk and 125kg substandard skimmed milk and cream.

Muhammad Usman said the PFA had sealed more than two dozens of khoya production units over proved contamination of adulterated ingredients in it. He said that dry powder, banaspati ghee, skimmed milk, chemicals and loose colours were being used in the preparation of Khoya, which caused health diseases to consumers. He said the teams also witnessed worst condition of premises where adulterated khoya was stored in non-food grade drums.

The PFA also serve notices on 178 food business operators and directed them to improve in their working environment and production.

The DG said the PFA officials were directed to check khoya production units three times in a year. —