Adulterated ice cream unit sealed after raid

LAHORE
Sale of adulterated ice cream manufactured under severe unhygienic conditions is going on unchecked in the provincial capital while the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) which, despite being informed, didn’t take any action against culprits.
The News received information about one of such units and immediately informed Director General PFA who responded through an SMS that the complaint was forwarded to the operations wing of the authority. However, after a wait of several hours and repeated calls to the Food Safety Officer of Nishtar Town and PFA’s Director Operations, Ayesha Mumtaz, team of The News called District Coordination Officer (DCO), Lahore, who deputed TMO Nishtar Town Ali Abbas and District Officer (Environment) Younas Zahid to reach the spot and take action against the culprits.
The said ice cream unit is situated in dingy streets of Kot Lakhpat area near Chandrai village. Entrance of the house was filled with stagnant sewage pulpy water while the house was full of filthy smell and scattered garbage. Ayesha Mumtaz, Director Operations PFA, who is checking sanitary conditions of high class restaurants these days, must visit this area and this particular factory to see what the real filth and unhygienic conditions are.
When the raiding teams entered the three-room house, they found one Ghulam Haider at the spot and handed him over to the police. Three to four red colored ice cream tricycles are parked in a dingy room of the house while in other two rooms were dirty freezers and other ice cream manufacturing equipment.
To the surprise of the teams, a freezer contained huge quantity of meat of some animal, which was also confiscated by the team of DO Environment. Younas Zahid claimed that the meat is of a dead animal because its bones are full of blood while the color of meat was also blackish. He said this meat contained huge quantities of bacteria and germs and was stored with ice cream sticks, which is highly unhygienic.
Residents of the adjoining houses revealed that the ice cream factory was established in this house some four months back. They said they didn’t know who owned this ice cream unit. Police said Ghulam Haider, the arrested employee, will give details in this regard. They said the owner of this business has employed local youths who came early morning and took ice cream filled red tricycles. All these youths are hired on sale basis and commission is paid to them on the total sale.
Residents claimed the owner is operating 12 to 14 tricycles, which the youth took to nearby areas and residential colonies and private housing societies. These tricycles played similar music of famous brands to attract children. Some tricycles also have stickers of famous brands to deceive customers.
Local residents said there are many other similar units working in this area. A resident Shahid said a kulfi manufacturing unit is operating in the next street. He said similar ice cream manufacturing units are also operating in other streets of this locality and no one had ever checked them. When asked about raids of the PFA on these units in past, the residents said they had never seen any PFA official visiting the area or heard that any raid is conducted. They said this was the first raid of its kind in this locality. Residents said PFA should take immediate cleanup operation in this area to save citizens who are eating these ice creams.
Ali Abbas, TMO Nishtar Town, said strict action will be taken against the culprits and multiple cases will be issued against the house owner as well as against those who are running this dirty business. Later, team of DO Environment sealed the premises besides taking samples of the ice creams to check their quality.
The operation ended at around 6:00 pm but no official of PFA’s operation wing reached the spot. Food Safety Officer Nishtar Town Yasir Arafat was also called and texted repeatedly but he didn’t attend or reply back.