LAHORE - The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has said in its 10-month report that it has expanded its operations to eight districts of the province.
Imposition of a ban on fizzy drinks in schools has been mentioned as an important milestone in the report. The report says there has been a 54 percent increase in PFA’s raids in 2017 compared to 2016.
According to the report, the PFA conducted 87, 539 inspections in five districts – Lahore, Gujranwala, Multan, Faisalabad and Rawalpindi – and issued 63,577 improvement notices from November 2016 to August 20, 2017.
Interestingly, restaurants in the Gujranwala district received 14,166 improvement notices, more than notices (10,752) that were served to restaurants in the Lahore district. After Lahore, Gujranwala is considered to be the food hub in Punjab.
A rapid increase in infrastructure projects in Multan in recent years led to an increase in the number of restaurants in the district. The PFA conducted 15,722 inspection raids in Multan and served 11,792 notices. Restaurants in industrial hub of Punjab, Faisalabad, received 19,019 improvement notices and 21,276 inspection raids were conducted in the district.
In recent months, the food authority has been raiding restaurants and factories producing substandard food on the basis of reports of its Vigilance Cell. In all these raids, the PFA imposed a fine of 56.6 million rupees on food businesses in the five districts. In Lahore, Rs37 million fine was imposed on food outlets ranging from famous restaurants to multinational food chains. As much as Rs10 million fine was imposed on food outlets in Gujranwala, Rs0.5 million in Multan, Rs0.6 million in Faisalabad and Rs0.7 million in Rawalpindi. PFA sealed 2,158 premises in 10 months – 721 in Lahore, 548 in Gujranwala, 153 in Multan, 456 in Faisalabad and 270 in Rawalpindi.
According to the report, 269 FIRs were registered and 69 people were arrested in 10 months. PFA teams also took samples of food stuff in the last 10 months to decide the future course of action. At least, 2,557 samples were collected from various food points.
The number of special raids, which the PFA conducted to curb sale of fake oil and ghee packets, adulterated milk and fake spices mafia in recent months, was 463. In some raids, PFA teams had to face resistance. The PFA has set up its own schools to train food workers in five districts. It has trained 6,000 food workers so far.
The PFA has banned all types of cold drinks and energy drinks at educational institutions in Punjab since August 14. It has issued instructions to all companies manufacturing cold drinks and energy drinks that they cannot supply bottles to any educational institution or outlet within 100 metres of the premises of a school. The PFA had served notices on violators last week and raids were being conducted even today.
PFA Director General Noorul Amin Mengal has said that cold drinks have been restricted in around 120 countries of the world keeping in view their adverse effects. Currently, the PFA is celebrating ‘month of ban on cold drinks and energy drinks’ (from August 14 to September 13).