Food adulteration a cause of concern

Much to the anxiety for the consumers, the top brand superstores, eateries and bakeries are also being penalised by the mobile courts for manufacturing sub-standard food items. Chittagong district administration, Chittagong City Corporation, Rapid Action Battalion and Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection have been conducting drives and mobile courts for the past few weeks. The mobile court drives discovered that many food items like butter, vermicelli, puffed rice, bakery items, sweetmeats and curd were being adulterated with hazardous chemicals in an indiscriminate manner. Top brand restaurants, super shops and bakeries of the city like Well Food Centre, Handi, Khulshi Mart and The Grocers were fined during the anti-adulteration drives. On Sunday, a mobile court busted a factory in the city which was manufacturing adulterated ‘Baghabari Special Gawa Ghee’ with palm oil, glue, harmful chemical and colour. On the same day, a mobile court of Chittagong City Corporation fined Kutumbari Restaurant located in Alankar area with Tk1 lakh for preserving date-expired fish and meat. A mobile court of Rapid Action Battalion fined ‘Banoful & Co Ltd’ with Tk15 lakh for using harmful ammonia for making biscuits crispy. “Ammonia is harmful for human consumption. It is used generally in fertilizer and textile industry. However, the errant bakery was using it for making the biscuits crispy,” said Sarwar Alam, executive magistrate of RAB. The same mobile court on the same day fined ‘Sizzle’, a leading food processing company with Tk3 lakh for applying colour in making cakes which is unfit for human consumption. The same mobile court fined ‘Flavor Sweet and Bakers’ with Tk8 lakh and ‘Fulkoli Food Products’ with Tk10 lakh for applying date-expired food colour in manufacturing cake and sweetmeat. On June 10, a mobile court of Chittagong district administration fined five super shops of the city with Tk5 lakh in total for selling substandard items unfit for human consumption. SM Nazer Hossain, vice-president of Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said: “The food adulterers of the port city have become so desperate that they do not care about the mobile courts. Regrettably the consumers cannot even depend on the top eateries and superstores as they are also adulterating foods only to make some quick books.” “Unlike any other country of the world, it is very easy to open an eatery in Bangladesh. The authorities concerned should take stern action against the errant businesses which are posing a serious threat to the public health,” added the consumers’ rights activist. “The local administration has to grapple with so many works. Therefore, Consumer Rights Protection Department and Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution should take the lead role and enhance their activities against food adulteration,” he added. “We are not sitting idle. As part of market monitoring, we are conducting drives against food adulteration on a regular basis,” said Md Ullah, assistant director of Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, Chittagong. Tahmilur Rahman, executive magistrates of Chittagong district administration, said: “We are taking stern actions against the errant businesses involved with adulterating foods. Apart from sentencing the unscrupulous traders with imprisonment, we are slapping fine on them,” said the magistrate. Expressing his grave concern over massive food adulteration, Chittagong Civil Surgeon Dr Azizur Rahman Siddique said: “Harmful chemicals applied on food items for colouring, brightness and freshness damage liver and kidney, and cause respiratory problem, cancer and allergy.”