Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food and Halal Food Authority has so far sealed around 743 premises and imposed fines totalling Rs 49.277 million on violation of food safety rules during different crackdowns in the past seven months.
Unveiling a performance report at a news conference at the KP Food Authority (KPFA) headquarter on Friday, the Director Administration, Mohammad Shoaib said that the Authority had conducted nearly 23,016 inspections at various eateries in different parts of the provincial metropolis Peshawar since the inspection of the food watchdog in the province.
Taking this action on more than 380 complaints, the official said that more than 602,457 unhygienic food items discarded during several crackdowns, carried out by senior officials and experts of the Authority.
Of the total imposition of Rs 49.277million on head of various penalties, he said that Rs 47.887million had so far collected from the violators. The authority, he said had so far issued 3,500 licenses to those vendors which were fulfilled all the required Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), while around 7,705 vendors /owners were issued license notices during the last seven months.
Furthermore, he maintained that licensing process would expedite after launching of official AndroidApp of the authority. As many as, he added 14,381 businesses had been inspected in the period.
Flanked by the Director Operations, Khalid Khattak, General Manager Information Technology, Mohammad Roman, Director Technology and Scientific and other senior officials, Shoaib clarified that the Food Authority has taken across the board action against violators as there was no discrimination between giant eateries and small food outlets.
After successfully launched in seven districts of the province, the official said that the Authority has planned to expand its operations in more districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, importantly recently merged tribal regions with the province.