PFA sealed 50 substandard sweet-making factories, fined 144 confectioneries

Lahore: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) sealed more than four dozen sweet production units and imposed heavy fine on 144 confectioneries in a daylong activity on Monday.

Director General PFA Noor ul Amin Mengal has himself visited to several sweets production unit and restaurants in Quaid-e-Azam Industrial area and Kahna. He said that special teams of the PFA have raided hundreds of confectioneries and examined the hygiene issues and quality of ingredients which were being used in the preparation of sweets.

He said that the inspection teams have examined more than 500 sweet units among 50 sealed, including 11 in Multan, three in Rawalpindi, eight in Faisalabad and six in Lahore. Whereas, the authority also issued warning notices to 255 food joints that had failed to meet its standards as per PFA regulations.

Mengal further said that the PFA Lahore stopped selling of six sweet units and sealed for violating the provincial food law. Meanwhile, the working environment of all shops was found extremely unhygienic. Further, the authority penalized 27 food business operators and released 33 sweet producing units over minor violations by serving warning notices for improvement. The teams will once again check all those sweet shops after three days, where minor violations were found.

Further, he has appreciated Doce Bakers for launching milk made ice cream product and recruiting food technologist along with given a cash prize of Rs10,000. As well, he also awarded a cash prize of Rs 5,000 to The Platers and show satisfaction on the quality and standards of Bundu Khan Restaurant at Kahna.

DG said that the action was taken against them for using poor quality ingredients and absence of food technologists. He told that PFA has been awarded cash prizes to six production houses for bringing improvement, maintained the standard and hired food technologists. He further said that the use of poor quality of oil, white flour, chemical and rongalite (rangkat) in sweets caused obesity and stomach diseases.

Mengal further said that PFA will continue its crackdown during Eid day in order to ensure the provision of standard sweets in Punjab. He said that the PFA will take strict action against sweet-making factories in case of not compliance with the PFA’s instructions. He has appealed citizens should purchase good quality sweets and ratified products from reliable confectioneries while citizen should prefer to eat homemade products.