RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Cantonment Board (RCB) on Friday imposed fines worth a total of Rs180,000 on four restaurants for selling unhygienic and substandard food items.

RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood told Dawn that RCB Additional Cantonment Executive Officer Rana Rameez Shafqat and RCB food inspector Waris Bhatti visited four restaurants and found that food was being prepared in unhygienic conditions.

The restaurants which were fined include the Monal restaurant, Hardees’, Des Pardes and Chinese Restaurant.

He said samples had been collected from these restaurants and were dispatched for testing to Lahore. The RCB team has warned the owners of restaurants in cantonment areas to stop using sub-standard food items and improve the hygiene condition or strict action will be taken against them, he added.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Food Authority also conducted raids in different areas and imposed fines worth Rs72,000 on a wheat flour mill and sealed Sain Jee Murgh Pulau on Murree Road.

A team from the authority conducted a raid on the Al-Qamar Flour Mill on Railway Workshop Road in Dhoke Ratta and on restaurants and food outlets in Dhoke Ratta, Dhoke Hassu, Sadiqabad, Commercial Market, Gulzar-i-Qauid and Naseerabad.

The team imposed fines on some restaurants but sealed Sain Jee Murgh Pulau because of the very unhygienic conditions and samples from the eatery were sent for testing to Lahore.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2017