PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety and Halal Food Authority discarded over 50000 litres counterfeit cold drinks in two different raids on Thursday. The Raids were carried out during the night at Nowshera and in the early morning at Acheni area of Peshawar.
In Ramadhan till date more than fourteen food and cold drinks production units being sealed in various crackdowns. A statement issued in this regard stated that under the directives of Director General Food Authority Riaz Khan Mahsud, Night squad of the authority raided a cottage industry situated in Acheni where counterfeit cold drinks were seized inside a production unit.
Director General added that misbranding in cold drinks was a much common practice, but due to authority’s crackdowns, the business is now limited to suburban and rural areas.
“Both production units being sealed, and machinery of the units were also confiscated. Nobody has the right to play with the public’s health. Copying the national and international brands earns a bad name for the province discouraging food sector investors,” Director-General added.
Director Operations and captain of the night squad Khalid Khan Khattak while giving details, maintained that information regarding fake cold drinks was shared on Emergency Response Unit. The teams responded under his supervision and seized more than thirty thousand litres of produced fake drinks of various brands.
“More than twenty thousand litres of counterfeit drinks were also discarded from containers as production continued at the time of the raid. Cottage industry is the major source of adulteration and misbranding while in KP it’s hard to raid a home without authentic information, night squad captain disclosed.
Director technical Dr Syed Abdul Sattar Shah cautioned that using low quality and fake brands drinks may injurious to health and it directly affects kidneys in Ramadhan. “These fake cold drinks units lack laboratory and technicalities and use of these chemically imbalanced drinks may result in severe health repercussions, Dr Sattar trembled.
