Authorities on Sunday also discarded over 100 liters of adulterated milk, 700 moldy eggs, and over two and a half maunds of expired items during a major food safety operation across the district.

The Punjab Food Authority, as part of the safety campaign under the provincial chief minister’s vision for health, inspected 776 food points, intensifying the crackdown against sellers of substandard food items. As a result of this extensive operation, 3,960 sachets of gutka, over 3,500 kilograms of ghee, and hundreds of kilograms of lentils and salt were also seized.

Establishments were fined a total of Rs 843,000 for multiple violations, including poor sanitation, failure to maintain records, and employing workers without medical certificates.

Consequently, five food units were ordered to stop production. In addition to the immediate actions, authorities have sent samples of nine different items to a laboratory for further analysis.

A spokesperson for the Food Authority said that items prepared with substandard ingredients can cause food poisoning and other dangerous diseases, and clarified that a zero-tolerance policy is being strictly enforced against elements endangering public health.