LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) stopped the production of 2,159 food businesses and disposed of an assortment of adulterated and unwholesome food worth millions of rupees during the current year, 2022.

This was informed by the Authority on Wednesday while sharing the annual performance report 2022. In the report, the authority has covered the activities of the operations wing, food lab, medical lab and trading school.

According to statistics, the provincial food regulatory body discarded 2,451,643 litres of impure milk; 77,366 litres of reused oil; 142,577kg of substandard meat; 67,136kg of tainted spices and 66,195kg of pulses. Further, PFA uprooted unhealthy vegetable crops by ploughing on 18,080 marla land for irrigating vegetables with sewerage and industrial wastewater.

PFA Director General Muddassir Riaz Malik said the authority discarded unhealthy food for failing to meet the food safety and quality standards. He also informed that the food authority imposed hefty fines on 4,526 cafes, restaurants, tuck shops and other eateries at the motorway service area over multiple violations.

He further said that PFA had approved 2,197 food labels and registered 1,420 food products during the current year. The Punjab Food Authority also conducted as many as 56,446 medical screening tests of food handlers/workers among 531 people found ill who were suffering from hepatitis and tuberculosis (TB), he added.

Moreover, the Training Schools of PFA had given Level-1 Training to 45,237 workers and Level-2 training to 2,914 people in Punjab.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022