UNB, Netrakona :
Iftar items of the standard below the mark are selling in the local markets here, including those in the district town, exposing health hazards to the fasting people in the holy month of Ramadan.
Owners of the iftar items’ shops, not only those in the rural haats and bazaars but also those at different intersections in the town, are doing brisk business with selling the items, made artificially attractive with inferior quality ingredients, at high prices too from the beginning of Ramadan.
There is seen a heavy rush of customers to buy the items every day before breaking their fast.
With the beginning of Ramadan, the roads and pavements of the town and different upazila headquarters went under the occupation of the vendors selling various iftar items.
As the sun starts leaning towards the west in the afternoon, people, mainly those fasting, are seen crowing the roadside shops for iftar items.
Sale reaches peak just before iftar, the time of breaking a day’s fast.
These iftar items are made with low quality ingredients, including artificial food dyes, and sold in an unhygienic environment too.
They include jilapi (sweet soaked in sugar syrup), bundia (a fried sweet snack made from boot dal and flour), muri (puffed rice), piaju (onion lentil fritter), Shobji Chop (vegetable fritter), Alur Chop (potato fritter), fried gram, Beguni (brijal fritter) and different kinds of sweetmeat.
The traders sell different kinds of seasonal fruits, including mango, laced with formalin. Some buyers alleged that most of the roadside vendors are selling sub-standard ifter items at high prices.
Owners of the shops of the iftar items make their products mixing them with colours to make them attractive to allure buyers.
The items prepared through the unhygienic process mostly include brinjal fritter, potato fritter, vegetable fritter, lentil fritter and jilapi, it is widely alleged.
It may be noted here that urea fertiliser is being used for making puffed rice.
One kilogram of date is now being sold in the local markets at Tk100 to 120.
High quality date is being sold at Tk 200 to Tk320.
Price of puffed rice is Tk50 to 60 per kg, banana Tk25 to 30 per quadrant, apple Tk120 to 140 per kg, piaju Tk two to three per piece, beguni Tk3 per piece.
One kg muri is being sold at Tk50 to 60.
Last year, three pieces each of piaju and baguni were available at Tk 2 during Ramadan.
One kg jilapi is now selling at Tk100 to Tk120 while in the same time last year the same was available for Tk 60 to 80.
Masum Ahmed, an iftar items shop owner of the town, said that sale of iftar items was dull this year compared to the previous years due to abnormal high prices.
It may be mentioned here that by eating the sub-standard iftar items many people have reportedly fallen sick here recently. Most of them were attacked with diarrhea, dysentery and other intestinal diseases. It is further alleged that some traders are also using impure and adulterated soybean oil and also seen using same edible oil again and again to prepare their iftar items.
Some doctors at Netrakona Sadar Modernised Hospital observed that consumption of such adulterated and sub-standard iftar items made with chemicals and artificial colours may endanger public health.
