Agriculture Minister Dr Abdur Razzaque on Thursday said that broiler chicken is not harmful to consume as the presence of antibiotics and metals in farm breed chicken meat exist in a much lower amount than the maximum tolerable level for the human body.
He came up with the information in a press briefing at secretariat on Thursday afternoon while unveiling a research on broiler chicken.
Highlighting the results of the study, the agriculture minister said: “Regardless of the source, broiler meat has much lower levels of antibiotics and heavy metal residues than the maximum tolerable levels. As a result, broiler meat is a safe food and there is no risk to public health in consuming such broiler meat.”
“There is a tendency of assuming in our country that broiler chicken is harmful for the human body. That's why the agriculture ministry conducted this research,” added the minister.
A total of 1,200 broiler chickens from several poultry firms and super shops have been examined in this research to find out the presence of 10 antibiotics and three heavy metals in meat, bone, composite of broiler chicken and broiler feed.
This research also found that the ratio of antibiotics and metal is much lower in super shops' chicken than the chicken of local markets.
“Because of some misleading information, people often have misconceptions about broiler meat and reduce the consumption of broiler meat. The result is a major negative impact on the poultry industry. We have seen this example recently. Consumption of farm breed broiler meat decreased drastically during the early stages of the Covid-19 outbreak in 2020,” added the minister.
The agriculture minister also said that the idea that chicken feed is made by using tannery wastages is also completely baseless.
“Right now, the country has a demand of 95,00,000 tons of poultry feed and the amount of tannery waste is only 85,000 tons,” Dr Razzaque said.
Responding to whether this campaign will increase the price of broiler chicken in the market Dr Razzaque, also senior leader of the ruling party, said: “To keep broiler chicken price within the purchasing capacity of the common people and to support the poultry sector, a positive decision will be taken after the discussion with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.”
Livestock and Fisheries Minister S M Rezaul Karim, secretaries of concerned ministry and scientific officials of agriculture ministry, among others, were present at the briefing.
