LAHORE: Special Assistant to the Chief Minister Punjab, Salma Butt, on Saturday visited Punjab Food Authority headquarters and received a comprehensive briefing on 2025 targets and ongoing initiatives.
Key areas discussed included school nutrition, food safety training, meat and milk quality control, ghee and oil inspections and eco-friendly measures.
DG Asim Javed shared that inspections of 13,884 roadside eateries under the Eat Safe campaign led to fines of PKR 15.27 million, sealing of 38 outlets, disposal off 1,200 liters of cold drinks, 2,000 liters of oil & over 895 kg of substandard items.
In school nutrition program, 38,000 children in 25 public schools received training on healthy eating habits. The program includes free BMI assessments, nutritional guidance, and lunchbox recipes for parents and teachers.
For meat safety, 64,370 inspections have been conducted resulting in 206 cases filed, 181 outlets sealed & over 427,000 kg of substandard meat discarded. Similarly, milk inspections covered 3.72 billion liters, discarding 1.84 million liters of poor-quality milk.
The PFA has also introduced international standards for slaughterhouses, involving local government & livestock representatives in process. Training for 360 food safety officers and over 400,000 food handlers across 37 districts has been completed with online training systems underway.
Salma Butt praised the Punjab Food Authority’s efforts highlighting school nutrition program as a groundbreaking initiative to improve children’s health. She emphasized that, under CM Punjab’s directives, this program will be expanded province-wide.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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