During the past few years, food adulteration has become a serious social problem in Bangladesh. Now almost all kinds of food - fruit, vegetable, fish, meat, dried fish, milk, milk-powder, sweetmeat etc are adulterated and contaminated with harmful chemicals. In fact, even baby food and life- saving drugs are not spared. Some of the known chemicals used for food adulteration are: carbide, formalin, aldrin, DDT, melamine, sulphuric acid, plant hormone, antibiotics, pesticides, chemical dyes etc. I am sure, everyone will agree with me that if this pervasive food adulteration problem is not handled with an iron-hand and solved within the shortest possible time, it will become a huge crisis in public health sector of Bangladesh.
If we look back at our society we see that the malpractice of food adulteration also existed in the past, but it was not so serious and rampant as it is today. I remember that in the sixties of 20th century, we could see sanitary inspectors of Public Health Department paying surprise visits to the rural markets. They would normally examine milk with a lactometer to identify whether water was mixed with it. In some cases, adulteration in the milk could be identified and then the inspector would fine the adulterators and also destroy the product. Till the end of the 20th century, our food items were almost adulteration-free, although use of DDT in the dried fish and growth hormones in pineapple etc were known in some cases. Later, with the advent of the 21st century, we came to know about the use of carbide in fruits like - mango, banana, papaya, guava, pineapple etc for artificial ripening of those fruits. Then 5/6 years back, we came to know about the use of formalin in fruits and vegetables for longer time preservation and keeping those items fresh.
But till then, the use of formalin in fish, meat, milk, imported fruits like -apple, grapes, orange was not known. Now the situation has worsened to such an extent that one can seldom get any fresh fruit, vegetable, fish, meat, milk and other primary or secondary food items free from adulteration and contamination. The puffed rice, which is a non-perishable item, is also adulterated with urea, sodium hydroxide etc. Interestingly our staple food rice is also contaminated in some cases with harmful chemical substances which we do not know about. It was revealed very recently at the Hawaii Airport by a customs officer while the writer was passing through the airport and carrying 2 kilograms of 'Miniket' rice for his own consumption.
The story is as follows:
On 27 May 2014, I was going to Hawaii, USA to attend a month-long training program on "Comprehensive Crisis Management" at the Asia Pacific Centre for Securities Studies (APCSS). Before leaving Dhaka, I met one of the APCSS's alumni in Dhaka who advised me to carry some rice, sugar, pulses, and spices with me as the trainee officers would have to cook their own food during their stay in Hawaii. Accordingly, I took a little sugar, some pulses, spices and 2 kilograms of 'Miniket' rice in my baggage. I flew to Hawaii via Bangkok and Narita and reached Hawaii Airport at 7.30 in the morning of 28 May. On my way to the baggage belt, a smart immigration officer came forward in my help as requested by the APCSS's protocol officer. I followed him to the baggage belt and he requested me to pick up my baggage which was in a queue. When I picked up my baggage, a customs officer came forward with a dog belonging to the dog squad. The dog was sniffing and moving around my baggage. Then the customs officer asked me, "Sir, do you have any food item in your luggage?" I replied, "Yes, I have". On being requested, I opened my baggage and the customs officer picked up the pack of 'Miniket' rice from among other few food items. Then he took me to his room and requested me to wait there for a few minutes as he went out with the pack of rice. After about 10 minutes, he came back with the pack of rice and said, "Sorry, your rice is contaminated with some sort of chemical, so we can't allow you to carry it to your hotel". Finally, I left the airport for my hotel in Hawaii leaving the pack of 'Miniket' rice behind. On my way to the hotel, I was thinking what the problem was with that rice which the majority people of Dhaka city consume. Later, I thought that our millers of 'Miniket' rice might have mixed some sort of chemical with that rice for making it more shiny, or that rice might have contained the residue of pesticides used in its production process, or it might have contained arsenic. However, whatever problem the 'Miniket' rice was having as mentioned by the US customs officer at Hawaii Airport, that should be identified by our quality control agencies for the greater benefit of the people.
Information about the 'Miniket' rice at the Hawaii Airport was an eye opener for me as till that day I did not think about contamination of rice, the principal food item of Bangladesh. I must thank the customs officer of Hawaii Airport who showed his sincerity and dutifulness in detecting something wrong in the 'Miniket' rice and not allowing me to consume it. It may me mentioned here that the customs officer at Hawaii Airport could have avoided it, as the rice in question would not have been used by any US citizen. He did it as a part of his duty and responsibility.
Now if we turn our eyes to our country, what do we see? We see that tonnes of contaminated food items - fresh fruit, dried fruit, fish etc are imported into the country without any restriction. Just a few weeks back, 2 vernacular dailies reported that some businessmen imported 12 containers of 'Chandina' fish (Hilsha like fish) from Bahrain and Oman. The report mentioned that those fish were containing harmful chemicals like cadmium, despite that, our customs authority at Chittagong Port cleared the consignment for public consumption. Here I do not want to compare the sincerity, honesty and patriotism of the customs officer at Chittagong Port with that of those of Hawaii Airport, but what I sincerely expect is that every citizen of the country should play his due role imbued with honesty and patriotism, and only then the country would be able to eliminate food adulteration and contamination from our society.
The writer is a Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Food, Government of Bangladesh, and an alumnus of APCSS, Hawaii , USA. Email : shapla1959@yahoo.com
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