LAHORE   -  The Punjab Food Authority (PFA) shut down five cooking centres and imposed hefty fines on 184 others over violations during a province-wide special inspection campaign. The authority also served warning notices for improvement on 679 cooking centres’ owners while discarding more than 107kg of stale food and prohibited ingredients. PFA Director General Raja Jahangir Anwar, in a statement, said that the food safety teams had inspected 1,000 cooking centres across different divisions of Punjab including 236 in Lahore, 68 in Faisalabad, 66 in Sahiwal, 209 in Rawalpindi, 96 in Gujranwala, 74 in Sargodha, 91 in Multan, 89 in DG Khan and 70 in Bahawalpur. He said that the PFA had stopped production at cooking centres for using loose colours, non-food grade items and prohibited ingredients in the preparation of food dishes. Further, 184 food business operators were slapped with hefty fines over violation of the hygiene rules. Raja Jahangir Anwar said that consuming substandard food prepared with prohibited ingredients can lead to stomach diseases. All counterfeiters involved in the preparation of food items will not be allowed to do business in Punjab, he added.