LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) imposed over Rs100 million fines on 8,497 food points including production units and food-carrying vehicles during the holy month of Ramadan besides issuing warning notices for improvement to 29,812 others.

The food safety teams shut down 224 food businesses and lodged 68 FIRs against food business operators (FBOs).

PFA Director General Muhammad Asim Javaid while talking to media here on Wednesday said that the authority took action against the FBOs for violating the Punjab Pure Food Regulations (PPFRs). He said that the authority had inspected 73,556 food points across the province in three shifts to ensure the provision of healthy, safe and quality food.

PFA’s watchdog teams discarded 64,000kg of expired food items; 35,000kg of unhygienic meat; 26,159 litres of spurious carbonated drinks; 3,850kg of adulterated ketchup; 5,273kg of substandard roll patti and 1,100kg of tainted gram flour.

He said that special teams were formed to rigorously check the milk and meat, as the demand usually increased during the holy month of Ramadan. He added that the PFA's special teams conducted thorough inspections on over 700,000 kilograms of meat by placing screening pickets at the entry and exit points of various cities in Punjab.

As per the vision of Punjab Chief Minister and following the directions of Punjab Food Minister Bilal Yasin, all stores, marts, grocery shops, milk shops, food factories and production units are being checked without any discrimination, PFA DG said.

Muhammad Asim said the use of prohibited or non-food grade ingredients in food preparation is a serious offence. He appealed to the public to read the writing on the label before purchasing any foodstuff and prefer to choose nutritious and healthy food for their good health.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024