Noman, a 22-year-old student of a local private college, was brought to the casualty ward of a public hospital with acute abdominal pain and massive vomiting. A doctor while injecting an anti-emetic ampoule into the drip of the young patient took no time to diagnose that he had gone down with food poisoning.
Noman had eaten lunch from a restaurant located in Aabpara, an employee in a dirt-and-sweat-tainted shirt, had served him with two-day-old curry.
Noman’s story indicates weaknesses in implementation of laws meant to regulate the sale of foodstuffs in hotels and restaurants landing hundreds of people into hospitals and private clinics with acute abdominal disorders while permanent dependence on such unhygienic food leads to chronic gastrointestinal ailments.
The Capital Development Authority has a set of laws dealing with various aspects of food safety. Although enacted a long time ago, these laws can achieve some minimum levels of food safety if implemented properly.
Due to negligence on the part of CDA, food outlets in Aabpara, Melody, Faizabad, Karachi Company are flouting laws regulating food quality. Under the food by-laws, every food vendor, be it a bakery, restaurant, or a meat shop, must keep its surroundings clean, cover all food items properly, whitewash the outlet and keep flies away. Unfortunately, a majority of eateries, meat shops and bakeries in Aabpara, Melody and Faizabad don’t follow these instructions.
According to the food by-laws those who work in a food outlet must be healthy and clean and they should not sleep inside that outlet. The CDA, however, has never bothered to make sure that food by-laws are complied with in letter and spirit. Food officials seldom visit markets and when they do go to a market out of the blue, most often than not they condone violation of food by-laws.
According to a CDA survey, there are approximately 3000 small food outlets, including roadside stalls, in the capital. These eateries offer a wider range of foods from a simple lunch such as seasonal vegetables and lentils, to traditional snacks including samosa, pakora, paratha, and omelet. A vast majority of people cannot afford to go to costly restaurants and they have no other option but to eat from these eateries who do not care about hygiene. Eating out at these places poses serious health hazards to the public and they fall victim to a number of diseases, especially stomach ailments.
