- Punjab Food Authority seals California-based fast food chain’s Lahore outlet for serving spoiled food
The Punjab Food Authority on Wednesday claims to have sealed one of the outlets of California-based fast food chain, Fatburger, in Lahore owing to “spoiled meat and vegetables” present in their kitchen.
According to a Facebook post by the authority, Director Ayesha Mumtaz sealed Fatburger’s MM Alam Road, Gulberg branch owing to spoiled meat with a “pungent smell, rotten vegetables in cold storage, as well as rancid oil being used for frying purposes”.
Established under the Punjab Food Authority Act 2011 to ensure availability of safe and wholesome food for human consumption, the authority’s basic purpose is to lay out standards for food articles and to regulate their manufacturing, storage, distribution, sale and import.
Fatburger – a Santa Monica, California-based hamburger chain – opened its biggest flagship outlet globally in June 2013 in Lahore.
In January, Fatburger’s franchiser BIL Foods entered the Pakistani market in the midst of the fast food boom and opened its first outlet in an up market Karachi mall.
Authorities have become more vigilant after a teenage girl lost her life after having a meal from an eatery in Karachi earlier in February. Thirteen-year-old Kinza died due to food poisoning in District Central Hospital after she ate a burger from fast food joint Dilpasand.