LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has closed down three school canteen for using non-food grade plastic packing, penalized 93 canteens with hefty fines and served warning notices for improvement on 355 others while carrying out a province-wide inspection drive against the school canteens.

Director General PFA Raja Jahangir Anwar along with food safety teams inspected a university cafeteria. The food teams inspected 559 school canteens including 89 in Lahore Division, 61in Faisalabad, 46 in Sahiwal, 54 in Gujranwala, 50 in Rawalpindi, 65 in Sargodha, 61 in Multan, 78 in DG khan and 58 in Bahawalpur Division.

The DG PFA said that the authority imposed an emergency prohibition order on three school canteens for using non-food grade packing and violating the Punjab Pure Food Regulations. Meanwhile, he said the PFA imposed fines for failing to meet hygienic working environments and not properly covering eatables.

Raja Jahangir said that PFA has divided food items into three categories (red, yellow and green) that are being sold in the schools. He added that PFA forbade colored snacks and unhealthy cola/carbonated and energy drinks, gutka, betel nuts and ice lollies at schools’ canteens in order to protect the bones of children and save them from fatal diseases.

The DG further said that food safety teams had been strictly monitoring the canteens of public and private educational institutions in order to ensure the availability of healthy food for the students.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023