The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has released its annual inspection schedule 2019 for the food industry in order to test edibles along with physical inspection. The manufacturers, packagers, and food business operators will be bound to follow that schedule.
According to the schedule, three to five-star hotels, meat, dairy (Khoya & Desi Ghee), pickles & muraba units, grinding units & spices/seasoning, sweets & bakers and sauces/ketchup/mayonnaise will be checked three times in a year. As well, snacks & nimko (including biscuits), ice cream & frozen desserts, dairy farms, honey, oil and ghee, confectionary (candies, chocolate etc.) water filtration plants (commercial), carbonated drinks, juices, energy drinks, squashes, sugar mills, cold stores and slaughterhouses, hatcheries/ poultry farms, rice mills, UHT or pasteurization plants, cheese/yogurt units, food additives (including colours, essence and fragrance etc) to be checked twice in a year.
Apart from this, waste handling including bio-diesel firms, rendering units and PAMCO etc, will be checked quarterly in a year. The PFA will also inspect pulp manufacturing, fat rendering units and ice factories on a seasonal base during 2019.
PFA Director General Captain (R) Muhammad Usman said that the competent authority has been published inspection schedule for 2019 in several esteemed newspapers in the start of the year. The purpose of PFA is to improve the food standards and bringing reforms in the food industry. PFA always give an improvement notice to food business operator for the first time over minor violations, he said and added that the provincial food regulatory body cannot put more than hundreds of millions consumers’ lives in danger. Further, the purpose of the inspection schedule is to keep check and balance on food industry, he mentioned.