PFA seals four food businesses in Lahore

The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) sealed four food businesses including two restaurants in posh areas of Lahore, here on Tuesday on the charges of flouting hygiene rules. According to details, food safety team under the supervision of food safety officer carried out raid and sealed Taipei Restaurant in Gulberg for using expiry products, presence of insects, improper cleanliness arrangements and other issues.
The team also sealed Tuscany Restaurant over preserving food on foot level, use of rancid oil, improper labelling on food articles and poor hygiene conditions.
The PFA watchdogs also inspected the Gourmet Foods Dairy Section in Sundar Industrial Estate and sealed it over non-compliance with food safety standards. Further, teams sealed pizza and sweets sections of Gourmet Foods during raid on site in Bhobhatian Chowk at Defence Road.
Both sections were sealed for covering sweets with a dirty cloth, unavailability of filter record, presence of pests and for not obeying the instructions of the PFA.
The authority also discarded around 240kg low quality fruit and vegetables, 25 bottles of versatile syrup and 60 litres beverages during inspected the quality of food in Ramazan Bazaars.
Similarly, teams of the authority also inspected different food businesses in 36 districts of Punjab and imposed heavy fine tickets of Rs 191,500 on 29 Food Business Operators (FBOs) over violations of provincial food laws.
The authority imposed fine of Rs 35000 in Lahore, Rs 14000 fine on two outlets in Multan, Rs 29,000 fine on seven shops in Rawalpindi, Rs 5,000 fine on two FBOs in Sargodha, Rs 58,000 fine on nine eateries and Rs 85,500 fine in DG Khan.
The PFA discarded a huge quantity of substandard products during operation including 124litres beverages, 280kg butter, 680kg fruits and vegetables, 25kg toffee, snacks, pepper and other adulterated food products. PFA's watchdogs have served notices on more than 2000 food points for improvement during raid.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Food Authority (PFA) also released the food test report of 2,073 food samples were checked from April 15 to May 15.
According to report, 462 food samples were failed over multiple issues and 1161 samples passed only in the laboratory test.
Director General PFA Noor ul Amin Mengal said that 598 samples were received in January, 784 in February, 220 in March and 578 samples in the month of April.
As well as, 110 samples were collected from Lahore Cantonment Board and 400 from Rawalpindi Cantt area.
He further said that PFA also analysis the quality of 68 edible samples and among them one sample found of low standard, which collected across the province's prisons.