Karachi: The Sindh Food Authority (SFA) recently sealed six restaurants, one pickle factory, and one bakery in different districts of the province for violating the government’s communicated COVID-19 SOPs, a news source reported. An SFA spokesperson on Friday stated that the authority had raided and inspected a total of around 200 food outlets, including the aforementioned venues.
The spokesperson revealed that they had conducted operations in Karachi, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Hyderabad, and other districts. He added that the six restaurants, factory, and bakery were fined PKR 300,000 each for violating the COVID-19 SOPs.
According to the details available, the SFA teams had inspected grocers, bakeries, restaurants, kiryana stores, and milk shops to ensure that they were following SOPs issued for both food outlets and home delivery services.
The SFA spokesperson highlighted that the authority had found discrepancies at the various food points and that each had been issued a warning notice as a result. Similarly, he revealed that outlets offering home delivery services were also raided and warnings were issued to those that had failed to follow the government sanctioned SOPs. He said that SFA teams had also provided a list of safety precautions against COVID-19 to these outlets.
The spokesperson revealed that all six eateries that had been sealed belonged to Karachi’s South District. He added that most of these outlets had cleanliness issues and that their employees had been violating SOPs for kitchen attire. He cited the example of the pickle factory where chemical drums were in use for storing ingredients and kitchens had uncovered washrooms in the same room. SFA Director General Amjad Ali Laghari stated that they would continue such raids, operations, and expedite other such measures during the ongoing virus situation. He added that violators of COVID-19 SOPs would face legal action as per the body’s law
