Food adulteration on the rise

Violations of Food Department regulations are taking place in Allama Iqbal Town, Ravi Town, Wagha Town and Data GanjBaksh Town as adulterated products flood the markets, Pakistan Today has learnt.

The complicity of the Food Department officials is contributing to the proliferation of adulterated food items in the metropolitan, sources claim. Majority of the adulterated products are sold at small shops, small restaurants and hotels and by roadside vendors because of their high profit margin.

Sources claim that adulterators are not scared of any legal or punitive action due to various loopholes in the existing laws, while those arrested or fined are quickly released on bail.

Price hike in daily-use items, increase in demand and the practice of associating certain edible items with social status also encourage the adulterators to market their products. For example, the use of mineral water has become a necessity as well as a status symbol, due to which producers of adulterated and contaminated bottled drinking water are fast launching their products in middle and lower middle class localities.

As per the rules, the recruitment of 17-grade officers can only take place through Public Service Commission examinations. Instead, most of the hiring in the Food Department is done under political pressure, which leads to maladministration. Sources claim that post devolution, the department is responsible for all 36 districts of the province. However, work is only being carried out in the provincial capital.

In 2011, 213 cases of adulterated food were registered in Lahore. In contrast, not a single case has been investigated or registered since the department’s devolution to the provincial level.

According to the Food Department director general, “The quality of food items is being maintained by the department and the people violating the rules are fined. It is difficult to regulate everyone as we are working on a large scale. We are trying our best to take every precaution.” He refused to comment on the inconsistencies in the hiring of the officials in the department.