Staff correspondent: Doctors say good food is necessary for good health, but are we eating good or healthy food? Not at all. Food adulteration has become a common phenomenon in Bangladesh by each and every stage like production, preservation, transportation, distribution and marketing.
A recent report of National Public Health Institute (NPHI) says that they had collected some 43 samples of food items from different markets and carried out test on them in the labs of the institute. In the test found all the 43 items of the commodities are adulterated or contaminated in various ways.
The report also says, the amount of contamination in those collected commodities is 40 percent on an average. Among them the amount of contaminations in 13 items is 100 percent. It is very terrible news indeed, they commented.
It is known from the reports of different sources that, adulterated commodities are rampant even from the puffed or parched rice or muri from the street corner vendors up to the branded commodities of the hi-fi stores of the country.
The report further says, poisonous and chemicals like formalin, pesticides, jelly, factory dye and other harmful substances are being found out in fishes to vegetables, loaves to breads, oil to butter; apple to oranges; bananas to brown wheat, dal to beef and chicken to water.
The survey also says, they have found out brick dust, wood weevil, harmful colour, cyanide etc. in the chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander and cumin powder.
Cholera germ and date expired powder milk are found in the name of cereals. The hotels and restaurants are cooking and are sourcing various diseases to the public health.
Colourful sweetmeats displayed in the dazzling glass enclosures are utterly contaminated with spurious substances and prepared in most unhygienic places, the report alerted the consumers.
The physicians and nutritionists say, the contaminated or adulterated foods, after entering human bodies, cause serious diseases like diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, intestinal diseases, tumor and even cancer.
The survey team also informed that even the baby foods are not spared from contamination.
Experts on chemicals and pesticides sounded the note of caution. They said, the poisonous food items are eating into the life sap of people.
It is the high time that the government should stop this adulterated food to save human life from undue deaths and public sufferings.
