Lahore - It was business as usual at a well known bakery at Chowk Yateem Khana. Inside the bakery’s large kitchen, bakers were busy cranking out a whole range of delicacies such as caramels, cakes, pastries, bread, chocolate donuts etc. Products from the bakery were supplied to different outlets in the city. While the bakers were at their work, a team of food inspectors barged into the premises, following a tip-off from a worker inside the bakery. The team had received information that the bakery cared the least about hygiene and maintaining quality. Food inspectors arrested the bakers and sealed the premises. They found that the eggs that were being used to make cakes had dead chickens in them.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Ranging from Sunday Bazaars to rat-infested bakeries to food processed in big factories, there is no guarantee of purity despite ‘100 percent pure’ stickers.  The standard of hygiene and quality control at the Sunday Bazaar offers just one instance of how common and how far the affliction has spread. A casual look at a butcher’s shop would reveal how deeply the meat is caked with dust and flies and in cases sold virtually next to heaps of garbage. The vendors who can be seen in Sunday Bazaars across the city and other places sell food that is an open invitation to food poisoning and a whole variety of allergies. The oil used to fry Samosa, Jalayby and french fries is unhygienic to say the least but in most of the cases, the vendors use it over and over again until it turns into a black greasy substance.
Food Inspector Abdul Samad Shah has been in the business for a long time and he knows what kind of chemicals are normally used to adulterate food. According to him, while it is mandatory for the cooking oil to be refined with Soya Bean, it is rarely done. This is highly injurious to health although the manufacturers do it just to increases the weight of the cooking oil. He said that saccharine is commonly mixed in Soda water which results in severe stomach diseases, while red colour is used to manufacture tomato ketchup. He said that the milk packed in tetra packs is highly dangerous for health since it has an aluminium coating which is heated to increase the shelf life. This prolongs the expiry date but causes a number of health problems. Similarly, he told that the powder which is a residue made up of wood is commonly used in spices. Biryani is another item that is frequently contaminated. Shopkeepers collect the leftover food and Biryani at the Shadi Halls just to make profits. During summer, all types of soft drinks are available at shops and vendors, although little do the people drinking them know that these are prepared from harmful chemicals to enhance colour and taste. The extent of preservatives and chemicals used in milk are so dangerous that they have been found to be carcinogenic, he said. Among others, impure water is added to milk, while in other cases, chemicals such as melamine, formaldehyde, urea and hair removing chemicals are commonly found in the samples. Similarly, vendors selling, popsicles outside schools pose a threat of children’s health. The Inspector said that they use contaminated water as well as dangerous preservatives and colours to make the popsicles appealing to children. So far as Bakeries and Confectioners are concerned, they are usually found to be using rotten eggs. Rotten eggs are used by almost all the big brands, the official said. Apart from that, bakeries and confectioners have been found to use detergent powder while manufacturing products made of milk. When he was asked to explain what kind of action that the food authorities take against the milk companies that were producing substandard milk, he expressed helplessness and explained the matter away by saying that they were issued ‘notices’. 
Set up to keep a closer check on the menace, Punjab Food Authority is up against a virtual Tsunami of adulteration. Before the authority came into existence, the system was dependent on food inspectors working for the City District Government. Suffering from a shortage of man-power, the Punjab Food Authority intends to make up for this shortcoming by having qualified Food Safety Officers on board. The officers are M-Phil in Food Technology. But for each town in Lahore, there is only one 17 grade Food Officer backed up by two Food Assistants. There are a total of nine towns in Lahore. One of the officers in the department admits that this number is barely enough to keep all the food outlets under check. According to rough official estimates, a single FSO has to keep an eye on more than five thousand outlets ranging from eateries, roadside vendors, shadi halls, restaurants etc. And worse still, the fines and punishments that are imposed under the Food Safety Act are not stringent enough to have deterrence value. Under the Punjab Food Authority Act 2011, a maximum of six months imprisonment is all that can be inflicted on the culprits while the maximum fine stands at one million.
Director General Punjab Food Authority Asad Aslam Minhas said that the authority is specially focusing on ice factories, soda water, milk and Oil and Ghee sector. He said that before the formation of the Punjab Food Authority, there was virtually no system in place to police substandard food outlets. There is no comparison between the situation existing before the setting up of the authority and afterwards, he said. 
Data from last seven months provided by the Punjab Food Authority shows the number of raids, fines and punishments awarded to the culprits for dealing in food hazardous to health.
So far as milk is concerned, out of 3,896 premises where milk was sold, 1,375 samples were found adulterated. A total of Rs 297,500 was imposed, while 978 of these premises were sealed. Similarly, on the spot checking of 978 milk vans revealed that 452 of them were carrying adulterated milk.
Most of Lahore’s supply of milk comes from dairies and factories outside the city. Punjab Food Authority has set up roadblocks on major routes where milk vehicles enter Lahore. These roadblock have been set up at Saggian Bridge, Babu Sabu, and Barki road, where the Food Safety Officers are equipped with Rapid Test Kits. This allows the authorities to carry out on the spot checking and initiate immediate action.
Oil is another basic food item that is regularly found to be contaminated with concentrates. Out of 1,163 shops and dealers, 344 samples were found to be adulterated. Punjab Food Authority imposed a total of Rs 396, 700 and sealed 79 of them.
So far as Ketchup is concerned, out of 903 premises inspected, 136 samples from them were found to be adulterated. A total of Rs 254,500 was imposed while 43 premises were sealed. 
On the spot checking of 1,315 outlets of spices revealed that 386 samples from them were found to be adulterated. A total of Rs 144,000 fine was imposed, while 17 premises were sealed.
In Allama Iqbal Town, out of a total of 13,211 outlets including hotels, Shadi halls, sweets and bakers and other factories, 2104 samples collected were found adulterated. A fine of Rs 2,736,000 was imposed while 397 premises were sealed.
These figures aside, it is hard to point out the extent of the scourge. When asked what was the extent of adulteration, the DG Punjab Food authority shrugged his shoulders as if expressing his helplessness. The authority has its own laboratory where it examines the samples as well as kits to make checks on the spot.
Another laboratory where food samples taken from well-known products are examined is PCSIR. But how well the Pakistan Council of Science and Industrial Research (PCSIR) is doing its part of the job can be gauged from its splendid building near the FC College on the Feroze Pur Road and its spick and span premises and last but not the least, how frequently, the place is frequented by ministers and dignitaries. But what is happening in the backdrop of this smokescreen, no one knows. So far as its Food Laboratory is concerned, its workings are shrouded in mystery while the doctors are tight-lipped about the results from food samples. According to one official in the Punjab Food Authority, the extent of food adulteration the lab finds out on a routine basis is so great that if exposed, it can jeopardise commercial vested interests and hence results from the samples are kept secret.
The Nation made an attempt to get these results. A Doctor from the Food Lab agreed to share the findings of the laboratory but she was stopped by the high-ups. Another effort to contact another doctor ended up in excuses of 'meetings'. For days, the high-ups, refused to meet the correspondent. Finally, an explanation was given that the findings from the food Laboratory were 'confidential'.