PESHAWAR: After long consultation, the Peshawar district administration for the first time announced standards operating procedures (SOPs) for restaurants and hotels in the provincial capital and vowed to ensure provision of best possible services to the end users. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Hotels and Restaurants Association agreed with the district administration on SOPs and assured to follow these in letter and spirit. The SOPs were during a ceremony where Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Riaz Khan Mahsud, Additional District Commissioner Osama Warraich, Assistant Commissioner Ashfaq Ahmad and Mumtaz Khan, and Khalid Ayub, president KP Hotels and Restaurants Association, and owners of hotels and restaurants were present. Deputy Commissioner Riaz Mahsud said the purpose of the regulations, the implementation monitoring and evaluation, should be to achieve standards of safety and hygiene of food and beverages. He said the activities should not be carried out for the purpose of discouragement and harassment of businessmen and investors. Riaz Mahsud said the DC office would issue a letter of intimation to restaurants in advance to avoid harassment of the business community. The food safety and hygiene SOPs are formulated to provide clean, hygienic and safe food items to ultimate consumers. It would cover personal hygiene of delivery person, receiving person, carrying staff, cooking staff and service staff. The regulations would involve the process from production of raw materials to consumption of that material in the shape of finished goods. The hotels and restaurants would keep healthy staff who would clean hands before entering cooking area with their nails trimmed, hair cut and dressed in uniform or clean clothes. They use gloves whenever required. The staff would also use aprons, hats and caps. The kitchen staff would require medical fitness certificate. The kitchen would need proper ventilation and drainage system, use of net or fly-killer, insecticide sprays, rat cages to stop or avoid flies, rodents and other insects. The restaurants would provide fresh water and soap, covered dust bin, covered drain in kitchen. There would be no smoking, coughing, sneezing in cooking area, and all machines would need to be clean and dry, rusted items should be painted and visitors would not be allowed to enter the kitchen without taking safety measures. As per the SOPs, different food items such as beef, mutton, fish, chicken should be kept in separate utensils to avoid contamination. During summer, meat would not be kept out for a long time and restaurants would avoid marinating food for longer periods. Marinated items would be kept separately in their respective containers or bags. The restaurants would need to use only registered and good quality of cooking oil, and herbs and spices. They would need keeping the food in clean utensils and rotten vegetables, fruit and all other rotten stuff ought to be disposed of. They would use only registered dish washing material and dishes would need to be washed with running water and wiped out with neat and clean cloths. The restaurants would have to keep neat and clean washroom with soap or shampoo for hand wash. The district administration and restaurant owners agreed that to regulate the businesses of food and beverages industry, special training programmes would be arranged for the hotel managers, owners and government officials supposed to monitor restaurants and hotels. Khalid Ayub said they were proud as they gave SOPs to the rest of the country. “We are thankful to the district administration for taking us onboard in formulating the guidelines. Our prime responsibility is to provide fresh and healthy food in clean environment,” he maintained. Also, the restaurants would have to face heavy fine up to Rs80,000 if found using bad quality of meat, vegetables, rotten and expired items. Restaurants would be fined Rs5,000 for lacking soap for hand wash, fire extinguisher, first aid kit. They would also be fined if the staff had not cut nails, didn’t have hair cut or weren’t wearing clean clothing. They would also be fined if they didn’t use aprons/hats/caps. Those using raw material of poor quality would be fined Rs50,000, and for substandard cooking the fine would be Rs25,000 fine. The administration would impose fine of Rs80,000 if fungus or rotten food was recovered from the restaurant. The restaurants and hotels would have to pay Rs20,000 fine for not keeping the floors clean and Rs5,000 for failing to use net/fly killer. Those not providing fresh water and soap in kitchen would be fined Rs25,000, unclean deep freezers Rs15,000, uncovered drain in kitchen Rs25,000 and lack of proper ventilation system Rs5,000.
