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LAHORE, Nov 16 (APP):The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) launched a province-wide inspection of fish points drive and penalised 187 food points besides issuing warning notices to 644 others for improvement of hygiene and food quality on Thursday.
PFA Director General Raja Jahangir Anwar said in a statement here that the authority had launched the operation to ensure availability of fresh fish in market because demand for halal seafood, especially fish, increased during the winter season.
He said the authority inspected 860 fish points across different divisions of Punjab including 177 in Lahore, 92 in Faisalabad, 80 in Sahiwal, 64 in Rawalpindi, 125 in Gujranwala, 113 in Sargodha, 65 in Bahawalpur, 68 in Multan and 76 in Dera Ghazi Khan.
He said that food business operators were penalised with hefty fines during the operation for using substandard oil for frying fish and failing to meet a hygienic working environment. Meanwhile, the PFA warned 644 fish points, asking them to improve their hygienic condition, he added.
The director general said the authority also discarded 400 litres of rancid and inferior quality oil, as well as more than one maund of stinky fish in a daylong operation. He urged people to use standard oil once for frying because reused oil makes the food unhealthy and causes health problems.
Moreover, he said that all types of food are also checked as per the annual checking schedule besides the surprise checking, while operations are also ongoing on a daily basis to ensure the supply of quality food for people in Punjab.
The PFA is utilising all available resources to bring more improvement in quality of food and the food industry, he said.