August 22, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 23, 1424

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RAWALPINDI, Aug 21: The district health authorities on Thursday seized thousands of litres of milk being transported from Mandi Bahauddin to Rawalpindi in unhygienic plastic containers used for storing chemicals, officials said here on Thursday.

It may be recalled that the provincial government had prohibited the use of plastic containers for storing eatables, declaring them unsafe.

The executive district officer, health, Dr Abid Shah, said the food inspector had repeatedly warned the milk suppliers against this malpractice but it cut no ice with them. “The inspector then seized the entire quantity of milk,” he added.

He said after confiscating the milk, the health officials contacted the district Nazim, Raja Tariq Kiyani, for further instructions, who directed them to destroy the milk. Dr Shah said the suppliers wanted to be fined instead of losing the milk and they had also talked to the Nazim in this regard but he refused to let them go off the hook.

The district government had recently intensified its campaign against those involved in food adulteration or selling unhygienic edible products. The district Nazim is spearheading the campaign. He has also visited the Sunday bazaars, where he got large quantities of overripe and rotten fruits and vegetables destroyed in his presence.

Raids have also been conducted on a number of prominent restaurants in the city and some of them have been temporarily sealed for selling unhygienic food.

However, the campaign has had little effect on the owners of the restaurants and the stall holders in the Sunday bazaars, as they are still continuing with their old practice.

Health officials claim that the number of cases pertaining to food adulteration had increased sharply over the past few years. “We have even fined some of the big names in food industry,” boasts one official of the health department.

The health officials say drive against food adulteration has been slow because of shortage of staff and absence of a food testing laboratory in the city. All food samples, they say, are sent to Lahore for analysis, which is time-consuming.