Sir: Pakistan spends billions of dollars of its foreign exchange reserves on the import of food commodities every year, which adds to the trade deficit every year. Fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, milk and other edible stuff is exported by Pakistan to earn foreign exchange, however, what is imported, significantly comprises of lavish food items, without any proper check whether they meet health safety standards or not. The food items’ list recently presented in the National Assembly, shows nineteen products that are openly sold in the market contain ingredients like white and red wine, gelatine and E120 (animal-based food colour). Some of the food items containing chicken have been placed in the list due to doubts about the slaughtering mechanism since stunning is prohibited in Islam. Therefore, the authorities should take steps to ban the import of such food items that contain impure ingredients and regulate the trade of eatables. SARWAT GHOURI Karachi