LAHORE: Food business standards will be uniformed across the country within a month doing away with the current disparities in regulations in force in different provinces, says Punjab Food Authority Director General Rafaqat Ali Niswana.

An important meeting of the technical committee formed by the Council of Common Interests (CCI) is scheduled to be held in Islamabad on March 31 to take a step forward in harmonising the food laws and regulations as over 50 per cent issues on standards and quality have so far been discussed and agreed upon by the food authorities of all the four provinces, he tells Dawn.

“The harmonised regulations are likely to be put in place within a month across the country.”

LCCI proposes merger of six food-related depts into one body for licence

Mr Niswana, who earlier visited the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry to inform the business community of the new standard operating procedures (SOPs) approved at the recent meeting of the Punjab Food Authority’s board for inspection of food units, says the authority has softened its regulations on quality issues.

The PFA is now restricting itself to issuing warnings and fining the food outlets, whether manufacturers or retailers, which compromise on quality and hygiene standards as against its past practice of sealing the premises, he explains.

However, he hastens to add that there is no laxity on use of adulterated or banned items/ingredients in the manufacture and sale of food products.

“Even now around 30 to 40 actions of the authority are on hygiene issues. But we’ve accepted the businessmen’s demand that their respective premises may not be sealed on minor violations in quality standards.”

He says for five categories of retailers the PFA fine ranges between Rs5,000 and Rs100,000 per violation and for as many categories of manufacturers the fine amount ranges between Rs50,000 and Rs400,000.

Responding to a query, he says the authority is offering online licencing and registration facility and that if documents are complete the process for the two purposes is finished within no time after a visit of the PFA team for inspection of the premises concerned.

The PFA DG said at the LCCI that the food units observing international standards would be given representation at the PFA board and inspection reports would be shared with them. He said the authority notifies its regulations after aligning them with the international standards that his body wishes to bridge communication gap with the stakeholders to make the things smoother.

LCCI Vice President Tahir Manzoor Chaudhry complained that the PFA would conduct raids without prior notice and sometimes after normal working hours.

He said the authority’s food technologists should also have experience of ground realities and not just academic degrees.

He said the business community associated with the food industry has to acquire six different licences from various departments to run their operations and sought rationalising the same. He proposed merger of all the relevant departments that issue food-related licences into a single competent body.

LCCI Executive Committee members Haji Muhammad Asif Sehar, Fiaz Haider, Dr Riaz Ahmed, Wasif Yousaf, Mardan Ali Zaidi and Wadood Alvi were also present.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2021