LAHORE: The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) on Monday banned the display of tea whitener products with packaged milk in grocery and general stores under Pure Food Regulation 2018.

The authority had imposed the ban after carrying out a detailed survey on consumer shopping trends.

The survey revealed that most of the shoppers had purchased the tea whitener in the disguise of milk and did not have awareness and knowledge about the product.

It further revealed that the tea whitener category had been increased around 35 per cent in dairy segment in the country. The use of tea whitener has increased and people are using it as alternative to milk in the preparation of tea.

According to a report, the liquid dairy market of Pakistan is mainly divided into four sections including plain dairy milk which covered 72.8pc area, tea whiteners (22.3pc), flavoured milk (2.4pc), cream (1.7pc), and low fat milk (0.8pc) in Pakistan.

The PFA director general told Dawn that the shopkeepers were bound to display tea whitener in a separate section and fix a label on it.

“This is not milk”, because the use of tea whiter as milk is not fit for human consumption and detrimental to health of children.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2018