Punjab Food Authority (PFA) has been actively monitoring daily use food items following the Supreme Court’s order against certain milk brands. In March, the authority sampled 142 oil, ghee and banaspati products from 120 companies. The results from Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), which tested the samples under different criteria, have now been made public.
From a total of 142 products, 92 passed, 26 failed and were listed as “dangerous to health” while 24 did not meet the recommended nutritional standards.
PFA has requested the public to avoid the available stock of products which failed the tests. The authorities have been tasked to remove the failed products from the market. Companies, whose products failed the tests, have been fined one million rupees each.
Those companies which did not meet the recommended nutritional standards have been asked to improve their product quality within one month. After the time limit ends, their products will be sampled and tested again.
According to the report from PCSIR, the following cooking oil, banaspati and ghee products were deemed harmful to health and will be removed from shelves immediately:
PCSIR also confirmed that several tested samples did not meet the international standards for nutritional values. These products will be tested again within one month to see if the quality has been improved. If not, companies will be asked to halt production with immediate effect.
The names of the products are listed below:
PFA has announced that it will test the quality of cooking oils and ghees at least two times every year. These tests will be pre-announced while one surprise test will also be conducted. During the tests, samples will be acquired in the presence of a company representative.
Samples are tested by PCSIR, which is an ISO-certified international standard laboratory. All companies are offered ample time to resolve issues in quality before and after the tests are carried out. The authority will take action against any party which violates PFA’s regulations.
