Vermicelli is being produced in the district factories under an appalling unhygienic condition, with the workers kneading the dough with their gloveless hands and feet under the very nose of the authorities concerned.
A good number of vermicelli workshops have mushroomed and their owners are doing brisk business ahead of the Eid, ignoring health and hygiene issues.
Almost all manufacturing factories are lacking in production licence and the unhygienic produce are taking a heavy toll on the consumers’ health.
The workers in the factories prefer moulding the dough manually to using the machines to do the job.
Locals said the factory owners bribed the lawmen to do the manufacturing at their own sweet will.
The district had 13 factories making the vermicelli, all lacking in health department approval.
Of the 13, there are six factories – Rupali Foods, New Hazi Foods, Alom Bakery and Foods, Five Star Foods and Meem Foods, Dhaka Bakery and Metro Bakery – in the heart of the city while only Harun Bakery and Foods in Sadar upazila, two in Matlab upazila, two in Haziganj, one in Faridganj and one in Kachua.
Some of them are producing only vermicelli after just obtaining production licence for bread and biscuits.
A visit to the factories revealed that most of them had no moulding machines.
On the contrary the workshops having such machines also witness manual jobs of the workers using their hands and feet with no gloves to make the vermicelli compound while sweat was pouring down their body on the dough.
The utterly unhygienic manufacturing poses a serious risk to health, but the district administration turns a blind eye to the malpractice.
The vermicelli traders market their products in baskets instead of packaging them.
Asked about unapproved industries, the bakery owners said it took them four to five months to obtain permission from the authorities concerned.
They described the permission formalities as a real hassle and pretended that they did not know that they required approval from the health department.
The traders said the Chandpur-made vermicelli were selling in different regions of the country including Dhaka, Barisal, Shariatpur and other districts.
The proprietor of Alom Bakery and Foods told the Dhaka Tribune that these workshops produced vermicelli throughout the whole month of Ramadan and for 20-25 days ahead of Eid ul-Azha.
He said his factory produced 500kg of vermicelli everyday and sold for Tk70-Tk72 to wholesale traders.
But a local source suggested otherwise.
It was reported that every factory manufactured around 1,000kg vermicelli worth Tk3,960,000.
Contacted, Chandpur Bakery Owners’ Association President SM Zainal Abedin said he closed down vermicelli production considering hygiene standard.
If anybody made the food stuff ignoring the hygiene issue, it would be completely up to him, added the leader.
Chandpur Municipality Sanitary Inspector Rafiqul Islam admitted that the market had been flooded with the adulterated vermicelli.
Asked what action they are going to take, he expressed his limitation, saying: “We have the authority to file cases only.”
He suggested drive of the mobile court that could award punishment to the manufacturers and sellers of these products.
But when questioned about this, the district Civil Surgeon Dr Rustom Ali said the sanitary inspector of Chandpur Municipality was solely tasked with looking into the matter.
He maintained that the inspector could exercise his authority to file cases if any food stuff was found to be adulterated.
