Unchecked
food outlets are serious threat to citizen’s health
“I
have no option other than market food, the one prolong my illness” a private
hostel student near Iqbal town said. He said many my friends are facing the
same problem, as mostly we are exposed to diarrhea and stomach ache. There is no check and balance from food
inspectors what ever the hotel owners feed to consumers. When we question hotel
management to hold some cleanness and provide some quality food they dare to
challenge our options to have such quality food they are providing, and really
they are right, we have no choice.
Alternatively the prices of food stuff are also on peak. Hotel industry in the world is a good business outlet but in Pakistan as people mostly used to feast with their family at home, it is facing profitable problems. Yasir Ali, owner of sabar hotel on multan road, said in gloomy tune, that “bhai sab puri ni paindi” (we earn nothing). Customer shouted on us about quality and then order to give lunch food worth twenty rupees. In this short imbursement what the hell quality customers want to buy.
Alternatively the prices of food stuff are also on peak. Hotel industry in the world is a good business outlet but in Pakistan as people mostly used to feast with their family at home, it is facing profitable problems. Yasir Ali, owner of sabar hotel on multan road, said in gloomy tune, that “bhai sab puri ni paindi” (we earn nothing). Customer shouted on us about quality and then order to give lunch food worth twenty rupees. In this short imbursement what the hell quality customers want to buy.
Consumers of market food are easy prey to
diseases like Abdominal cramps,
Diarrhea
(may be bloody), Fever
and chills, Headache,
Nausea , vomiting and Weakness.
Ministry of health appointed food inspectors to check food quality in their
locality. When asked one official he said “I am agree some of our colleagues
take bribe but short cash as bribe may give license to someone to play with
innocent lives. So we try our best to assure standard food for citizens but
with short numbering and thousand food points its impossible to achieve hundred
percent.”
Illegal
slaughterhouse and unregistered food point are root cause of detrimental food
conditions. Owners of these profit channels may earn some pennies at the cost
of people health but mark a question on our societal behavior. They are not
only using locally-produced oil, but many of them are also consuming cooking
oil and ghee made by unregistered companies.
People
who take market food must scrutinize the quality of food provided. Dr. Ghazanfar
Abbas gastroenterologist, assistant Professor of medicine said that food
poisoning occurs when food is prepared by
someone who did not wash their hands properly. Any food prepared using unclean
cooking utensils, cutting boards, or other tools, Dairy products or food
containing mayonnaise (such as coleslaw or potato salad) that have been out of
the refrigerator too long.
He
also suggests some safety measures for hotel management to avoid such unhealthy
circumstances that they must use clean dishes and utensils
that have had any contact with raw meat, poultry, fish, or eggs. Use a
thermometer when cooking, cook beef to at least 160°F, poultry to at least
180°F, and fish to at least 140°F. Do not place cooked meat or fish back onto
the same plate or container that held the raw meat, unless the container has
been completely washed. Promptly refrigerate any food you will not be eating.
Keep the refrigerator set to around 40°F and your freezer at or below 0°F. Only
drink water that has been treated or chlorinated, he suggested.
Given
that food intake is the fundamental precondition for survival; food safety
issues embrace us all the time. Food safety simply means that what we eat, chew
or drink is safe for human health. In order to ensure that people get safe
food, multidimensional approaches have to be taken at all levels of a food
chain e.g. production, storage, supply, distribution, and consumption, etc.
An
employee of a sweetshop confided to this scribe that the most terrible factor
in the preparation of the fried items was the mixing engine oils in the cooking
oil. This makes the food crispy, he further confided.
The
use of toxic chemical and dye as colouring agents is also rampant in the City.
A customer, Muhammad Ameed, said the already substandard cooking oil was reused for many times until it turns dark resembling crude oil. He said, besides the quality of the oil and ghee being used in the City, the shopkeepers do not clean their cooking utensils. An owner, Liaqat Ali, however said the fried items were very popular among the Lahorites. It’s a seasonal business with very small investment, he said.
A customer, Muhammad Ameed, said the already substandard cooking oil was reused for many times until it turns dark resembling crude oil. He said, besides the quality of the oil and ghee being used in the City, the shopkeepers do not clean their cooking utensils. An owner, Liaqat Ali, however said the fried items were very popular among the Lahorites. It’s a seasonal business with very small investment, he said.
Govt.
of Pakistan legislates to ensure food safety for its people. The Pure Food Ordinance,
1960 consolidates and amends the law in relation to the preparation and the
sale of foods. Its aim is to ensure purity of food being supplied to people in
the market and, therefore, provides for preventing adulteration. The law
prohibits any person to mix, colour, stain or powder any food, if the mixing
involves violation of prescribed rules or is likely to make the food injurious
for health.
National
Institute of Health (NIH) and Pakistan Council for Research in Water Resources
(PCRWR) have conducted laboratory tests of bottled water brands numerous times
and found many brands unfit for human consumption but did not disclose names of
those brands.
Most
of the countries around the world have developed their own legal frameworks for
ensuring food safety, notwithstanding the effectiveness of these frameworks.
Pakistan does not have an integrated legal framework but has a set of laws,
which deals with various aspects of food safety. However, like many other laws,
these laws remain very poorly enforced.
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