Punjab Food Authority seals spurious soft drink factory in Lahore

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) unearthed and sealed a spurious soft drinks factory involved in producing carbonated drinks of different popular brands and discarded thousands of litres of fake soft drinks, hazardous chemicals and empty bottles during an ongoing operation to clamp down on the adulteration mafia.

Director General PFA, Muhammad Asim Javaid said that during a crackdown in Lahore city, a unit was caught producing fabricated fizzy drinks and an FIR has been registered against the culprits in the respective police station, leading to the arrest of six people from the spot.

The PFA also discarded 8,000 litres of spurious drinks; 1,000 litres of hazardous solution, 900 empty bottles, and prohibited colours and flavours. The PFA confiscated 580 beverage crates, seven cylinders, three machines, five drums, a water tank and 50kg of lids during a raid.

Muhammad Asim Javaid said that action was taken against the unit for producing chemically contaminated drinks with hazardous chemicals, loose colours, artificial sweeteners and unclean tap water.

Meanwhile, the team collected the beverage samples for food testing; however, the brix value was found to be zero and the beverage sample results were not up to the mark.

A food business operator (FBO) also failed to present the food license and meet the hygienic working environment defined in the PFA Act, he said.

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The PFA DG further said that the adulterated cold drinks were to be supplied to local shops in Lahore; however, the raiding team ruined their unholy ambitions by taking timely action. He said that the utmost priority of PFA is to ensure the provision of standard and quality food as per the vision of CM Punjab. INP