ISLAMABAD: Fast food restaurant owners in different areas of the federal capital are using substandard food items to increase their profit margin.
Residents from different localities of the capital city complained that the fast food restaurants located at various places were allegedly selling stale and low quality food items. They said that the restaurant owners were using substandard food items purchased at low rates to increase their profits.
“These restaurant owners are so greedy for money that they do not care about the multitudes of lives they are putting at risk by selling substandard food”, a resident said.
While talking to reporters, food expert Professor Shahana Arooj Kazmi said that unhygienic food outlets had now become a serious problem for public health as eating out is part of the modern Pakistani lifestyle. She also said that people should only go to those food outlets where proper hygiene is practiced and the quality of food is clean.
“Apparently these restaurants are very beautifully decorated, but inside their kitchens there are heaps of rubbish and waste,” she claimed. She also said that these restaurants use low quality chicken which further aggravates health issues, particularly among children.
Moreover, Professor Kazmi said that stomach infections and abdominal pain are the most common ailments that individuals might face after eating at unhygienic food outlets. She also said that diarrhoea and gastroenteritis, especially among children, was caused by unhygienic food available throughout the city.
Furthermore, Kazmi said that unhygienic food might lead to more serious health problems like urinary tract infection, abdominal cavity infection, vomiting and stomach cramps. “We have to educate the common man regarding the use of clean and healthy food”, she added.