A large shipment of wheat is headed to Bangladesh amid fears that it may not be fit for human consumption. It is also unclear how authorities concerned will determine the consignment’s fitness for consumption, leading to more questions.
The consignment of 50,000 tons from Brazil is scheduled to arrive February 19. According to reports, the average vomitoxin level in Brazil’s wheat rose to 2.5ppm in 2014, leading to fears that the consignment heading Bangladesh’s way may not be fit for human consumption.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established a threshold of 1ppm (parts per million) for vomitoxin tolerance for finished wheat products like flour.
Vomitoxin may lead to food poisoning symptoms – nausea, abdominal pain, dizziness, and fever – about half an hour after consumption. Long-term and continuous exposure to even low levels of vomitoxin may cause dangerous reductions in appetite, weight loss, damage to the gastro-intestinal tract, and may impair the immune system.
The importer's, Olam International’s, head of corporate communications, Briony Mathieson, told Dhaka Tribune that the shipment comes with a “fit for human consumption” certificate.
This means, Mathieson explains: “The wheat is in fact not limited only to being certified free of Vomitoxin, but also free of any harmful toxins, heavy metals, and other substances, in order to comply with international standards.”
Mathieson did not confirm the exact level of vomitoxin in the consignment, but said the wheat was tested by a third party and vomitoxin levels were “well within international [which includes USA] tolerance levels for ‘raw wheat’ futures contracts.”
She pointed out that vomitoxin levels could be drastically reduced during the processing stage.
Sarwar Khan, director general of the Department of Food, told the Dhaka Tribune that he has not heard anything about the allegation.
“However, in case of such allegations, we will initiate appropriate laboratory tests to find out the actual case upon arrival of the wheat.”
He said testing was a standard procedure in case of such allegations.
An Food Department official said they usually deal only with regular specifications, like moisture and grain quality, of rice and wheat but not levels of such substances.
Food samples are commonly sent to different laboratories in case of suspected presence of substances like formalin, melamine, cadmium, or bromine.
But officials of the laboratories of Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR), Wheat Research Institute, Microbiology Department of Dhaka University, and National Food Safety Laboratory, that generally deal with such requests from the food department, said they do not conduct any test for vomitoxin. Most are not even equipped to test for the substance.
Dr Md Zahurul Haque, director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology of BCSIR, the premier scientific research institute of Bangladesh, said they do not have any facility to test for vomitoxin.
The Microbiology Department of Dhaka University and National Food Safety Laboratory also said there were no facilities to test for vomitoxin.
Even Dr Poritosh Kumar Malakar, director of Wheat Research Institute, told the Dhaka Tribune they have never dealt with such a substance.
But the Inspection, Development, and Technology Division of the Food Department said the government has previously sent food samples abroad for testing in such cases where facilities in Bangladesh were inadequate.
Traded at the Singapore Stock Exchange, Olam has been supplying wheat since 2012 and has so far shipped upwards of 200,000 tonnes [to Bangladesh?].
Bangladesh produces a little over 1.2 million tonnes of wheat every year.