Md. Arafat Rahman: Mixing any harmful and unnecessary products, including low quality food for the dishonest purpose is food adulteration. Any food can be considered adulterated if it is not natural. Unscrupulous traders usually do this for great profit. In the process of adulteration, the external substances are directly added to the food grain, such as sand or small stone for weight gain, good grain with pest infected or destroyed grain.

From fish to meat, from indigenous fruits to imported fruits, vegetables, jam-jelly is adulterated. This adulteration is spread from infant food to almost all the essential foods. For example, urea is used to make the color of the puffed rice whiter. To protect against digestion, fish are given formalin. Melamine is mixed with milk. Colorful chemicals are used in sweets to keep it fresh and attractive for a long time. Different chemicals are used to ripen fruit and prevent digestion.

For faster ripening and attractive colors of mango, banana and other fruits, carbide is being used and formalin to prevent digestion. Formalin is also being mixed with dead fish. Harmful DDT is used in dried fish. Formalin and pesticides are also being provided in vegetables. The colors used in cloth and leather are used to make ice cream, biscuits, noodles fruit juice and even sweet to make it attractive. Nowadays, sand is mixed with salt as an adulterant.

The taste of oranges and maltas has changed due to chemicals. Tannery waste, husks containing horrible toxic chemicals is using as chicken feed. Chicken meat and eggs are getting poisoned. In different hotels of the country various chemical dyes are being used to make the color of the curry attractive. Lemon juice is being used while cooking dead chicken to prevent bad smell.

Nowadays small plastic pieces of grain size are mixed with cereals and colorful pieces are mixed with pulses. Sometimes water is sprinkled on stored grain to increase its weight. Oils and fats are very easy to adulterate and difficult to detect. Ghee is adulterated with animal fat. With the recent invention of artificial colors and flavorings, consumers can easily be cheated. Almond oil or cottonseed oil is often mixed with sesame or coconut oil.

When allylisothiocyanate is mixed with soybean oil or palm oil, it becomes mustard oil-like and can easily be sold as mustard oil. Adulteration of palm oil with soybean oil is a traditional practice of unscrupulous traders. Sometimes adulterated milk is marketed by adding water to the milk. Sometimes soybean oil or almond oil, flour and other ingredients are added to the milk. It is very easy to mix flour and other ingredients in powdered milk.

Tea is adulterated with used tea leaves, wood powder and dry leaf powder. Addition of lead dyes to chili or turmeric powder enhances color brightness and looks good. Rice powder or flour is added in the preparation of sweets. Carboxy methyl cellulose is often used instead of liquid glucose or sugar syrup to make soft drinks. Juices are produced using artificial and banned substances in the name of various fruit juices. At present, the quality of the water that is being traded in the market under the name of mineral water is very little or in many cases there is no guarantee.

Food adulterants cause various damages to the human body. Foods mixed with toxic chemicals cause serious health risks. Application of formalin in fish, meat, fruit and milk causes cancer, asthma and skin diseases. Its harmful effects are severe for children and pregnant mothers. Inhalation of even small amounts of formaldehyde gas is also a cause of bronchitis and pneumonia. Formalin is a toxic chemical substance that causes various types of cancer in the human body, including immediate death. Most of which have no known cause.

However, toxic chemicals like formalin have been proven to cause cancer. This results in stomach inflammation, liver damage, bone-marrow accumulation. According to the data provided by consumer rights organization, Bangladesh Consumer Rights Society, more than three lakh people are getting cancer every year in the country by consuming adulterated food. About one and a half lakh people are suffering from diabetes and 2 lakh people from kidney disease. Carbide can cause severe headache, vertigo. In the long run it can cause mood swings and memory loss. Calcium carbide can cause kidney, liver, skin, bladder and lung cancer.

Bangladesh has many laws to prevent adulteration. The Pure Food Act provides for life imprisonment to prevent the production of adulterated products. Apart from this, there are many other laws including the Penal Code 1860, Pure Food Ordinance 1959, Pure Food Policy 1967, Pure Food Act (Amendment) 2005, Mobile Courts Ordinance 2009, Poisons Act 1919, Consumer Rights Act 2009. A huge amount of formalin and various chemicals are imported every year. But there is no proper accounting of where they are sold. These chemicals are sold in the open market. And they are constantly being used in food products.

To eliminate adulteration in Bangladesh, it is necessary to take exemplary punishment first. Section 25 (c) of the Special Powers Act, 1974 provides for death penalty, life imprisonment and 10 years rigorous imprisonment as punishment for food adulteration. Exemplary punishment using can prevent adulteration if punishment is ensured through law enforcement. Adequate monitoring of import of various types of chemicals should be arranged. At the same time, policies should be formulated and implemented to limit the use of imported chemicals.

Regular mobile court operations should be strengthened. Small fines will not work. Strict punishment should be taken against them. BSTI (Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution) authority should ensure the quality of the product and give approval. Moreover, action should be taken if any of the authorities of BSTI is found to be corrupt. Some other tasks to be done at the government level include- a. ensuring that the existing laws of the country are up-to-date and provide for more severe punishments and their implementation in practice, b. tightening of principles to control the quality of food products, c. bringing food products under continuous inspection from production to consumer`s hand, d. eliminating incoordination between different ministries and agencies.

Duties of traders include- a. be vocal against dishonest food traders, b. the entire business community must stop speaking out for unscrupulous traders. Tasks to be done at the consumer level include- a. consumers should organize and build a social movement, b. increasing awareness among consumers, c. adulterated food should be boycotted. Undoubtedly, food adulteration is a national problem. All of us, especially the policy makers, need to truly understand. There is no substitute for fresh food to stay healthy. Some unscrupulous traders are endangering the society to protect their personal interests. It’s driving the nation towards paralysis. If the country and the nation really want to progress, they have to stand against dishonest traders and ensure fresh food.

Writer: Md. Arafat Rahman is a columnist and services holder at Southeast University. He can be reached at arafatrahman373@gmail.com