Muhammad Sharif

The Lahore Restaurants Association (LRA) participated in pre launching ceremony of the new “Star Rating Program” by Punjab Food Authority (PFA) to determine the quality of hotels, and restaurants across Punjab, held here yesterday at the Faletti’s hotel, Lahore.

In the ceremony, provincial ministers, including Dr Yasmin Rashid, Malik Ghazanfar Cheena, Sardar Shahab u din, Amir Anayat and Dr Akhtar Malik, participated. Food authority chairman Ali Raza Khakwani, PFA DG Shoaib Khan Jadoon, Kashmir food authority DG Attiq Sakhawat and other officials were also present at the occasion. University of Home e Economics Vice Chancellor Dr Kanwal Amin and renowned journalists and food experts graced the event.

Restaurant owners from all over Punjab were invited. LRA office manager Fraaz Mahmud Qasoori and his associate Muhammad Sharif also participated. Mr Mansoor Zaighum, Mr Fawaz Sheikh, Mr Mubeen from Yum, Mr Sohaib from KFC and Mr Tauqeer Hassan from Papa John’s were present at the occasion.

The ceremony started with the recitation of few verses from the Holy Quran. After that, the documentary regarding the activities of PFA was shown to the audience. PFA DG Shoaib Khan Jadoon gave a presentation on the concept and working of the Star Rating Program.

He said, “The star rating program launched by the PFA will rate the restaurants according to their cleanliness, services, ambience, and quality. In the start, only PFA officials can log in the app and give ratings, but later on, customers will also be able to rate the restaurants.”

He added that our mission is not to hurt anybody’s business but to create healthy competition among restaurants and make them provide the best and hygienic food to the customers.

Talking to the ceremony, Dr Yasmin Rashid highlighted the importance of food safety and hygiene. She said this application would create healthy competition among restaurants and is a good initiative for citizens.

The ‘Star Rating Program’ application recognizes, motivates, evaluates, monitors, supports and rewards restaurants based on their performance after evaluation. Stars from 1 to 5 are assigned to restaurants included in the program after evaluating their service, cleanliness and quality. According to a survey, nearly 59% of people consume unsanitary food. This program helps people to choose the right restaurant with the required hygienic standards. The Star Rating Program slogan is: “Select restaurant by choice, not by chance”. A questionnaire based on 62 questions has been arranged according to which the restaurants will be rated.

All the restaurants will have to go through this process four times a year after full implementation in Punjab. The app is available on the Google Play Store for downloading. Customer feedback regarding quality will also be considered while the restaurant takes centre stage. The restaurant is second to home, where people often come to enjoy their favourite tasty cuisines and foods to spend quality time with friends and family.

The restaurants having higher ratings will be displayed on the PFA website and their social media handlers, thus resulting in an increase in their business, said the PFA DG.