How clean is your chicken?

• Shopkeepers at the Tollinton Market make sure that no chicken part is left uneaten; offal is unhygienically processed and sold to restaurants while faeces are recycled to make bird feed

Illegal and unhygienic processing of chicken in Tollinton Market’s backyard is giving rise to environmental and health hazards in the city.

Due to environmental issues with the market’s earlier location at Anarkali caused by the Environment Department and Lahore Development Authority (LDA)’s negligence, it was shifted to Jail Road.

However, the situation remains unchanged.

The market presents dismal hygiene and environmental conditions with widespread encroachments. All waste and raw materials are being processed in the market’s backyard with a drain flowing nearby.

The drain is totally blocked and has terrible maintenance and the authorities’ unconcern with food processing occurring in the drain’s vicinity is astonishing.

Chickens are being processed without following basic hygiene guidelines. Parts of the chicken which are dispensable for consumers are cleaned by the drain’s side, gathered in huge pots and boiled for sale. This material is then re-used for making bird feed, and is also supplied to restaurants where it is used for cooking various chicken dishes which Lahoris unwittingly love to dine on.

In the past, this shocking practice was conducted on the market’s rooftop, but was temporarily discontinued after action taken by environment officials.

However, the deplorable state of affairs has resumed, and enterprising businessmen go around collecting bird remains such as their faeces, talons and feathers to boil them for re-sale and earn profits by feeding birds to birds, and inedible bird remains to the citizens.

The authorities however remain oblivious to the unhygienic use of chicken remains.

The market suffers from several other problems such as overcrowding and lack of parking space as huge trucks carrying poultry birds block the roads in the morning.

Environment District Officer Zahid Younis while defending his position said that he ordered that all such units be removed from the market’s vicinity as they were causing severe air pollution because of the sub-standard fuel and fat being burnt.

Further, WASA officials while speaking to Pakistan Today said that the processing of the food items in the backyard was illegal and informed that they had fined several dealers for engaging in this practice. They said that these dealers disposed of waste in the drain, causing it to become blocked. WASA’s efforts to cover the drain are underway, they added.

Meanwhile, Lahore’s citizens continue to consume unhygienic chicken.