In March 2026, inspectors fanned out across Pakistan’s capital to examine the places where its people eat every day.

They checked 1,618 food outlets for basic hygiene and safety. Only one met the standards set by the Islamabad Food Authority, as stated in the authority’s own report. This finding forces an uncomfortable reckoning with what we routinely consume, what we serve our children, and how unsafe kitchens, contaminated ingredients, and careless food handling have quietly become the norm in a city that calls itself the federal capital.

Food is the most intimate public service in any society. It enters our homes, our bodies, and our children’s lives without question. We rarely pause to think whether the milk is adulterated, whether the oil has been reused beyond safety, whether the kitchen where our meal was prepared had clean water, pest control, or basic hygiene. We trust and that trust, as this survey shows, is being betrayed at a systemic level.

From the bustling food streets of Lahore to the sprawling eateries of Karachi, from roadside tandoors in Rawalpindi to small market stalls in secondary towns, millions of meals are prepared daily in environments that would fail even the most basic hygiene checklist. The informal food economy feeds the working class, students, labourers, and travellers. It is affordable, accessible, and culturally vibrant but dangerously under-regulated.

When only one outlet passes inspection in the........

© Pakistan Observer