BSS, Rajshahi :
Speakers at a post-rally discussion in Rajshahi city yesterday emphasised the need for forging social movement against all sorts of unhygienic and adulterated foods for sound health.
They also stressed the need for creating mass awareness to fight food adulteration malpractices by dishonest profit-mongers.
The adulterated and contaminated foods always pose serious threat to the public health and called for taking punitive measures against the food adulterators and contaminators so that none more dare to commit such type of crimes.
Civil Surgeon Office organized the discussion in Luxmipur crossing to mark the World Health Day-2015. “From farm to plate, make food safe” was the main theme of the day.
Various non-government development and voluntary organizations like Damien Foundation, Social Marketing Company (SMC), TBCAREII, Light House, TMSS, BRAC, FPAB and Ashakta Punarbashan Sangstha (APOSH) joined the rally.
Civil Surgeon Dr Abdus Sobhan, Divisional Health Education Officer Sharifa Begum, Senior Health Education Officer Sazzad Hossain, BRAC District Representative Jahedul Islam and SMC Programme Manager Asaduzzaman Sarker addressed the discussion, among others.
Highlighting the challenges and opportunities associated with food safety the discussants said unsafe food can contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances, and cause more than 200 diseases – ranging from diarrhoea to cancers.
Some important results are related to enteric infections caused by viruses, bacteria and protozoa that enter the body by ingestion of contaminated food.
Food safety is a cross-cutting issue and shared responsibility that requires participation of both public and non-public health sectors like agriculture, trade and commerce, environment, tourism and support of major international and regional agencies and organizations active in the fields of food, emergency aid, and education.
The speakers put forward a set of recommendations which included strong and regular monitoring of eateries, strong monitoring to prevent mixing formalin in milk and ban on preparing foods meant for selling under open sky and on the roadside.
The recommendations also included ban on using colour in ice- cream and sweets, healthy condition of slaughterhouses, strengthening the anti-food adulteration taskforce, increasing manpower of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution and instituting mobile courts so that immoral traders refrain from adding harmful things to food.
