Food Adultration
Food Adulteration
Food adulteration with poisonous chemicals has reached a dangerous proportion posing serious health hazards in the country, said experts and government officials yesterday at a discussion jointly organised by The Daily Star and non-government development organisation RDRS Bangladesh.
Basic food items on the market like rice, fish, fruits, vegetables, and sweetmeats are adulterated with hazardous chemicals in an indiscriminate manner, though food-grade preservatives and colours can be safely used in permissible quantities, said the discussants.
The discussion on "Hazards of Food Contamination in National Life: Way Forward" was held at The Daily Star Centre in the capital.
Views about the proportion of adulterated food items on the market varied between 70 and 90 percent.
RDRS put the proportion at more than 90 percent referring to test results of government laboratories published in newspapers, while the officials and researchers present at the discussion said it is 70 percent.
More than 76 percent food items on the market were found adulterated in a random survey by Public Health Laboratory of Dhaka City Corporation in 2004.
There are approximately 150 food items in the country, said SK Roy, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
Poisonous residues in food items leave the worst impact on children's mental and physical growth and women's fertility, cause cancer, and damage vital human organs like liver, kidney, and heart, the discussants said.
Roy in his presentation said formalin is applied on fish for preservation; calcium carbide on fruits to ripen; brick dust in chilli powder; urea to whiten rice and puffed rice; sawdust in loose tea; soap in Ghee; and artificial sweetener, coal tar, and textile dyes in sweetmeats.
Formalin applied on fish, fruit, meat, and milk causes throat cancer, blood cancer, childhood asthma, and skin diseases, he said.
Poisonous colouring agents
Food adulteration with poisonous chemicals has reached a dangerous proportion posing serious health hazards in the country, said experts and government officials yesterday at a discussion jointly organised by The Daily Star and non-government development organisation RDRS Bangladesh.
Basic food items on the market like rice, fish, fruits, vegetables, and sweetmeats are adulterated with hazardous chemicals in an indiscriminate manner, though food-grade preservatives and colours can be safely used in permissible quantities, said the discussants.
The discussion on "Hazards of Food Contamination in National Life: Way Forward" was held at The Daily Star Centre in the capital.
Views about the proportion of adulterated food items on the market varied between 70 and 90 percent.
RDRS put the proportion at more than 90 percent referring to test results of government laboratories published in newspapers, while the officials and researchers present at the discussion said it is 70 percent.
More than 76 percent food items on the market were found adulterated in a random survey by Public Health Laboratory of Dhaka City Corporation in 2004.
There are approximately 150 food items in the country, said SK Roy, a senior scientist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B).
Poisonous residues in food items leave the worst impact on children's mental and physical growth and women's fertility, cause cancer, and damage vital human organs like liver, kidney, and heart, the discussants said.
Roy in his presentation said formalin is applied on fish for preservation; calcium carbide on fruits to ripen; brick dust in chilli powder; urea to whiten rice and puffed rice; sawdust in loose tea; soap in Ghee; and artificial sweetener, coal tar, and textile dyes in sweetmeats.
Formalin applied on fish, fruit, meat, and milk causes throat cancer, blood cancer, childhood asthma, and skin diseases, he said.
Poisonous colouring agents