USE of chemicals in food preservation, especially in perishable items like fruits, is going on unabated causing great risks to human health. Such chemical contamination is widely occurring without any interference from health officials of the government. Since the government is not taking the issue seriously, except on selected occasions, the problem is turning out to be very serious as it is occurring on a more frequent basis on edible items traded in the market.
A report carried in a national English daily on Monday said, country’s 40 percent food items are contaminated with injurious chemical pesticides, which have been banned for long but traders are using it unimpeded.
As food is the basic need and getting safe food is a citizen’s right, we express our deep concern over the growing use of chemicals in food. Its cost in term of health hazards and cost of treatment may turn out to be enormous at the end. The government claims to be a government of the people but its nonchalant outlook to address people’s health concerns are not easily understood. We share experts view that the government must immediately take up the responsibility and keep the market under regular watch, besides regular laboratory tests to ascertain the level of contamination in major food items as part of the public health safety programme.
As we see that the law is not enough to control the unscrupulous trades and an existing nexus between dishonest traders and inspectors of the watch dog agencies are making the market supervision ineffective.
News reports quoting a FAO-sponsored test at the National Food Safety Laboratory (NFSL) found the presence of toxic substances in food samples from 3 to 20 times of the permissible limits set by the European Union. The toxic substances mixed with the food items are mainly DDT, Aldrin, Chlordane and Heptachlor. These are extremely harmful to human health. Besides, lead, arsenic, chromium and formalin were present above safe limits in some food components. Though most of these chemicals are banned imports because of high toxicity, dishonest businesses smuggle these from neighbouring countries. Here the role of the law enforcing agencies is highly important to check its smuggling. The officials of Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) also cannot shrug off the blame also as the toxicization begins at the early stage of the production of fruits like mangoes or farming of vegetables in the field.
Reports said that the common food items, which are highly contaminated, are carrot, bean, tomato, lettuce, capsicum, banana, apple, pineapple and mango. Rice, turmeric, poultry meat and juices are also not free from heavy metals. NFSL detected presence of antibiotics in chicken and fish samples. It reports, high microbial populations were found in several samples of pasteurised milk indicating poor processing. As we see, the very names of the items suggest the highest level of vulnerability to the human body from chemical mixed food items. We can’t ignore the threat and urge the government to strengthen the market monitoring and pass the right kind of law to address the issue. Any indifference may cause the nation to pay heavily for it.
