'Most of food items available in market are substandard'

A parliamentary panel on Monday observed that most of the edible products available in the markets are uncertified and substandard, and directed the Ministry of Science and Technology to collect samples of three mandatory items including milk, bottled water and cooking oil, and submit a comprehensive report about their standards and qualities within one month.
Milk was included in the mandatory items in Oct 2016, while flour is still not included in the list notified by the government under Section 14 of Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) Act VI of 1996.
"Most of the food items including flour, biscuits, milk, cooking oil/ghee, etc, in the country are substandard and some even contain chemicals, which are extremely dangerous for health and hence resulting in increasing number of diseases," observed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Science and Technology.
The committee met with Chaudhry Tariq Bashir Cheema in the chair to discuss the performance of PSQCA and 'Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies Bill, 2016'.
The PSQCA officials informed the committee that the authority is certified with 108 products for testing, inspection and certification according to international standards. However, the committee expressed serious concern observing the certified food items including bottled water, milk and ghee are not available even in the federal capital. "The things we and our children are eating are all of substandard quality," the parliamentarians said.
The PSQCA officials informed that since Oct 2016, more than 200 notices have been served on different cooking oil/ghee units; however, the parliamentarians said that departments are doing nothing but are swung into action after the suo motu notice of the Supreme Court.
They further informed the committee members that provinces are of the opinion that after passage of the 18th Constitutional Amendment, setting standards falls in their domains; however, in most of the cases standards deviate and this may create crisis in market. It is resulting in overlapping and destroying the single market concept, said the officials, adding if it continues, it would result in market depletion and items manufactured in one city of the country would not be acceptable in the other cities. The committee recommended that setting standard should be the domain of the federal government to keep uniformity and standard in food items. The committee directed the PSQCA to keep a check on the certified products.
The committee was further informed that PSQCA is a self-sustained/financed institute and does not take any amount from the government. The authority's income was Rs 733 million during 2015-16 and it generated Rs 480 million in the first 6 months of the current financial year against a target of Rs 950 million for 2016-17.
The committee discussed the 'Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies Bill, 2016' in detail; however, the committee was of the view that the said Bill is against the employees of the institution so the committee unanimously opposed it. The committee directed the ministry to revisit the bill and come up with the proposals of an attached department; otherwise, the bill would be rejected.