ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) - Testing of 491 samples of ghee, edible oil and milk products across the country has revealed that several food items failed to meet prescribed quality standards.
According to a Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) report presented at a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee, 26 ghee samples contained trans fats several times above the permissible limit.
The report said vitamin A was absent from 46 ghee samples, while moisture and unpleasant odour were also detected in several samples.
The report was presented during a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee chaired by Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal.
According to the findings, fat content in 26 samples of packaged milk was below the prescribed standard, while eight samples of milk powder contained less protein than the required level.
The report found 79.4 percent of ghee samples in Balochistan, 63.3 percent in Sindh and 58.3 percent in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to be substandard.
All packaged milk samples tested in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to meet the prescribed standards.
The committee directed that the PCSIR report be forwarded to the Ministry of National Food Security and ordered the establishment of a quarterly monitoring mechanism.
Ahsan Iqbal directed immediate action against substandard food producers and called for a joint quality-control system involving the food authorities of all four provinces.
He said poor-quality food was one of the major factors contributing to the rise in heart disease among young people and ordered action against manufacturers producing substandard products.
The minister also directed authorities to include rural markets in the food quality monitoring system.
Meanwhile, Ahsan Iqbal said 80 percent of the country’s population relies on LPG for household use.
An OGRA report also highlighted a significant gap between official and market prices of LPG. The committee directed the Ministry of Petroleum and OGRA to resolve the LPG pricing issue within three days.