LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Tuesday busted a group involved in producing spurious carbonate drinks of different popular brands.

The Authority discarded 5,000 litres of fake fizzy drinks, 55 kg of hazardous chemicals, loose colours, substandard sugar and poor quality of food flavours during a raid on a factory in the Sadar area. The team also seized 1,050 empty bottles, four kilograms of lids and labels, two gas cylinders, six chillers and a filing machine.

Commenting on the bust, PFA Director General Muhammad Asim Javaid said the police had registered a case against two people over adulteration and forgery on the complaint of the PFA while handing the two accused over to the area police for the investigation to nab the group involved in this heinous crime.

He further said the Authority took action against the factory owner over the failure of carbonated drinks samples during the lab tests and added that the fabricated fizzy drinks were being prepared with loose colours, hazardous chemicals, artificial sweeteners and unclean tap water.

“Fake beverages with fake labelling were to be supplied to the different local shops in the poor localities of Lahore; however, the raiding team prevented it by taking timely action on a tipoff of the vigilance cell,” he added.

The Director General said that citizens were being misled by putting counterfeit labels on fake bottles; the use of chemically contaminated beverages poses a threat to users’ health, especially children because expired ingredients in the preparation of drinks lead to kidney infection.

“The PFA’s enforcement teams had been carrying out a crackdown round-the-clock against counterfeiters under the zero-tolerance policy across Punjab,” he added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024