LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has recovered 7,000kg of expired meat and 6,000kg of tainted chilli as well as lentils during two different raids conducted in Lahore and Sargodha, on Tuesday.
As many as 7,000kg of expired meat was imported from different neighbouring countries around three years ago and stored in the cold store in Lahore.
This was informed by PFA Director General Mudassar Riaz Malik.
The PFA team recovered the animal’s trotters, heads, tongue, stale meat during the raid. The provincial food regulatory body set ablaze the expired and stale meat after confiscating. He said that the provincial food regulatory body traced the cold store on vigilance-based information after finding stale meat from a hotel.
He said the PFA has lodged an FIR against the cold store owner in the nearest police station as per the law and also started to collect the data of meat purchasers for taking further action against the responsible.
In this context, PFA DG directed the operations wing to immediately carry out a cold stores inspection drive for checking the imported meat across Punjab. He said this decision has been taken to ensure the provision of edibles including hygienic meat for people in the market.
He requested cold store owners to cooperate with the food safety teams in identifying black sheep in their business. He warned butchers and meat companies to sell the meat of healthy animals otherwise, lawbreakers would be dealt with iron-handedly.
The PFA DG added that all those food business operators who have been working according to the law need not worry at all, because PFA is a public-friendly organization.
In another raid, PFA DG led the operation in Sargodha and seized 1,000kg tainted chilli; 1,850kg ‘daal moong’; 1,700kg ‘daal matri’, 500kg ‘tota rice’ and 800kg chickpea flour. He said that adulterated chickpea flour was being prepared with non-food grade prohibited ingredients.
The director general said that the use of substandard spices causes health issues for consumers. He appealed to the public to report any suspicious activities and complaints on the PFA Facebook Page and Toll-Free number 0800-80500.