LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has stopped production at eight water filtration plants due to poor quality in the provincial metropolis on Thursday.
Director General Raja Jahangir Anwar said that the PFA teams raided several water filtration plants to check the quality and safety standards in Wapda Town, Wahga Town, Ittefaq Town and Ring Road.
He said that the authority took action against eight food business operators (FBOs) due to an excessive quantity of arsenic and coliform in water. He said that the samples of different water filtration plants were found not up to the mark over quality and labelling parameters in the laboratory test. The FBOs also failed to present the record of filter change to the raiding teams, he added.
The PFA DG said that production at the plants will remain suspended till reforms. He said that high levels of arsenic in water could be extremely harmful to human health because microbiologically contaminated drinking water causes diseases such as hepatitis, diarrhoea, dysentery and cholera.
He said that enemies of public health will not be tolerated at any cost. “If you see adulterated items being made somewhere, report it to the PFA on its 1223 helpline,” he advised.