It is winters, a season of Halwa’s, chocolates of all kinds and all sweetest mouthwatering products. It’s not wrong to say that it is a season for dessert lovers. But we have an issue of life and death in it which is “are we getting pure sugar or contagious sugar”. We cannot be even sure about sugar we take in the purest form which is given to us through nature as everything these days is adulterated.
A layman these days looks up to the government to get pure food or are mostly disappointed and they end up buying the same adulterated products. As World Diabetes Day is here and worldwide the number of with diabetes in 2014 was risen from 108 million in 1980 to 422 million. The global prevalence of diabetes among adults over 18 years of age has risen from 4.7% in 1980 to 8.5%. Diabetes prevalence has been rising more rapidly in middle- and low-income countries. It is a major cause of blindness, kidney failure, heart attacks, stroke and lower limb amputation. In 2016, an estimated 1.6 million deaths were directly caused by diabetes. Another 2.2 million deaths were attributable to high blood glucose in 2012. Almost half of all deaths attributable to high blood glucose occur before the age of 70 years. Diabetes was the seventh leading cause of death in 2016. Although it can be avoided through Healthy diet, regular physical activity, maintaining a normal body weight and avoiding tobacco use are ways to prevent or delay the onset of type 2 diabetes. It can also be controlled if we take minimal amount of sugar and keep a check and balance about the chemicals being included to the sugar. We are working day and night and in this run we forget to check our health, we need to get sugar from the pure things provided to us by nature, this is the least we can do for our own health.
We have very less authorities who are working hand in hand with the government and in this picture, we can see Punjab Food Authority working day and night for the betterment of people. Lately, we have seen PFA sealing many restaurants, eatery places etc. this is a major organization playing for the betterment of people. Government has a keen eye over them and they do not let us down by unveiling the real faces of adulteration mafia who are present all over Pakistan and eating Pakistan’s purity in food. It is a curse to our country which is ruining the base of us by spreading adulterants in every food item we consume.
In this regard, Punjab Food Authority did a crackdown on Sugar mills in Pakistan which were likely to commence sugarcane crushing season; therefore, authorities are making sure that mills follow all rules before the start of the season. On October 28, 2019 the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) conducted a province-wide inspection of sugar mills to ensure compliance with food safety measures and standards.
In a day-long operation, authorities paid a visit to overall 44 sugar mills and inspected 40 sugar mills and found four sugar mills were shut. According to the PFA Director General Capt. (R) Muhammad Usman, teams inspected 13 mills in south Punjab, nine in Rawalpindi Zone, and 18 in Lahore Zone. During an inspection, the teams scrutinize storage and hygiene arrangements. The purpose of the visit was to make sure mills follow the implementation of food regulations. DG PFA said that those who found violating the PFA act, an action would be taken against them.
In an interview DG PFA said that the purpose of this drive was to control the contamination of chemicals in it that used usually during its preparing process. He added that food authority is taking all preventative measures and necessary steps for the bright future of the food industry in Pakistan. He is also the Health Care Secretary and this comes with more responsibility with high expectations as well. Public is dependent on the higher authorities, government and all the food authorities in general but we as Public also need to play a vital role in this initiative to stop adulteration. We can complain, inform authorities, inform people around us and also work on us. It is a give and take process; if we will be helping the concerned authorities we will be eventually working for our own good.