NAROWAL: A Punjab Food Authority team on Tuesday recovered Rs7.5 million worth of expired milk, biscuits, ketchup, jellies and other food items from the warehouses of super grocery stories.

PFA Deputy Director Operations Hafiz Muhammad Imran along with his team made a surprise visit to the warehouses of Malik Super Grocery in Ahmedabad, a suburb of Narowal. During inspection, food safety officials recovered 1,121 litres of expired milk, 2,500 litres of juice packets, 171kg biscuits, 517kg ketchup, 143kg sneakers, jellies, cakes and other food items estimated to be worth Rs7.5m.

Hafiz Imran told Dawn that the PFA was receiving complaints from citizens that the expiry dates written on the food items were removed by markers and a new expiry date was applied and those items were being sold.

He said the team raided five warehouses of the grocery store of Town Ahmedabad after complaints received from the markets.

He said the material used for removing the expiry date and applying new date were recovered from the grocery stores.

He said the authority issued a warning to the owner of the grocery and imposed a fine of Rs200,000.

The officials seized the expired food items recovered from the warehouses and disposed them of.

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2022