Factory sealed for producing substandard juice

LAHORE: Punjab Food Authority’s (PFA) operations team and vigilance cell on Monday jointly carried out an operation on Sharakpur Road and sealed a juice factory for producing substandard fruit juice.

Officials said AK Foods production unit was sealed immediately while a case was also registered against the factory owner in the respective area police station. Briefing about the raid, PFA Director General Noor-ul-Amin Mengal said the factory was found involved in producing juice from artificial flavour and prohibited chemical which is a criminal act. Meanwhile, the fruit was not being used in the manufacturing of juice.

He said around 4,000 bottles of manufactured juice and raw material of thousands of litres juices were captured by watchdogs of the authority on the spot. The team also confiscated two filling machines, two packing machines and cylinder from the site.

Mengal said that the PFA had foiled an attempt to supply unhygienic and substandard juice to local shops in different cities of Punjab, including Lahore.

He said that adulteration mafia mostly hit illiterate and remote areas for marketing of their products added that people should use fresh juice instead of artificial juices. The sale of unhygienic and adulterated food would not be tolerated in Punjab, he mentioned.

On the other hand, the authority has sealed nine food businesses, including two milk shops, confectionery, fruit shop, tobacco shop, bakery, fish poet, beef shop and ice factories in different cities of Punjab. All food premises were sealed during raids across Punjab.

The teams comprised of food safety officer, assistant food safety officers and other officials of the team. The PFA sealed tobacco shops for selling gutka in Multan, ice factory in Sargodha, four food points in Faisalabad and three outlets in Rawalpindi division. The teams have sealed food points for using expiry products, presence of insects, improper cleanliness arrangements, preserved food on foot level, improper labelling on food articles, poor hygiene conditions and over non-compliance with food safety standards.

Food safety teams issued fine tickets of Rs43,500 fine to five outlets in Multan, Rs61,500 fine to 16 shopkeepers in Rawalpindi, Rs37,000 fine to four FBOs in Sargodha, Rs67,500 fine to 11 eateries in Gujranwala, Rs44,500 fine to eight food points in DG Khan, Rs10,000 fine in Bahawalpur and Rs132,500 fine to 17 eaters in Faisalabad city.

They discarded a huge quantity of substandard products, including 5,796kg rotten and chemical treated vegetable and fruits, around 21,627 litre oil and ghee, 1,000 litre adulterated milk, 5,980 butter, 39,130 bottles, 30 litre skimmed milk, around 60 litre beverages, germ-infested meat, loose colour and other foodstuffs. PFA’s watchdogs have served notices on more than 2,500 food points for improvement during the raid.

WATER SAMPLING CAMPAIGN FROM 1ST JUNE

Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has decided to kick off the second phase of water sampling campaign from 1st June across Punjab for checking the quality of water. In this connection, PFA Director General Noor-ul-Amin Mengal has directed operation teams of the authority.

Watchdogs of the PFA will collect samples from 1,150 water filtration plants in 36 districts of the province within seven days. He said that PFA will compile a report of water samples within 15 days to complete its laboratory test procedure. In the light of laboratory report, indiscriminate action would be taken against filtration plants by immediately closing the plants which results will not satisfactory. He said that PFA will collect water samples from hospitals, Wasa plants, government departments, educational institutions and other sources.

Specialised water safety teams are working day and night in order to ensure the provision of clean drinking water in Punjab. Special Water Safety Training programme has been launched for improving the standards and quality of water filtration plants, he added.