Quality assurance: Food authority to set up offices in five districts

The authority was established on July 2, 2012, to ensure the quality of food in the province. While the PFA has been operating in the provincial metropolis since then, it had had no setup in other districts.

The authority is making final arrangements to open an office in Faisalabad in March.

The government has allocated Rs100 million for offices in Multan, Rawalpindi and Gujranwala. However, the authority is not sure when the funds would be released. Approval of Rs35 million for the office in Faisalabad was granted last year.

The PFA had advertised 27 vacancies for its Faisalabad office. It received 3,000 applications for nine food safety officer posts and 18 assistant food safety officer. The authority will decide the officers in 10 days. They will be trained for 15 days after the joining date.

PFA officials told The Express Tribune that the next office would be opened in Rawalpindi first, then Gujranwala and finally Multan. The process of hiring officers for these districts would begin a month after the office in Faisalabad opens.

The PFA plans to request the government to expand its operations from the district to division level. The office in Lahore would extend operations to Kasur, Nankana Sahib and Sheikhupura. The authority will request the government to expand operation to Okara and Sahiwal districts.

The PFA has, since 2012, sealed 1,185 factories producing substandard food items and has taken out several popular milk, oil and ketchup brands. It has collected Rs9.8m as fines and Rs885,000 as license fees.

Director General Asad Islam Mahani said he hoped to have offices in five districts by July. A deadline had not been set and all plans were subject to availability of funds, he said.

Mahani said the authority also planned to establish specialised cells for research on materials used to manufacture oil, ghee, beverages and dairy products.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2014.