200 tonnes fruit destroyed

On the second day of police drives against formalin contamination, almost 200 tonnes of poison-filled fruits have been destroyed. On Friday afternoon, Dhaka Metropolitan Police Joint Commissioner Monirul Islam told reporters, ‘On Thursday, 120 tonnes mangoes, 32 tonnes of plums and 562,135 litchis were destroyed.’ About 15 tonnes of different kinds of fruit juice were also destroyed because they were found to have contained formalin. ‘In the mangoes we found 2 ppm (parts per million) formalin, 143.94 ppm in papayas and 5.07 in plums,’ Monirul Islam said. The joint commissioner said the police were trying their best to protect the city’s residents from the poison of formalin. Police were talking to fruit traders, storage-owners and producers, he said. ‘It is unacceptable that for the sake of profit, someone will put people’s lives at risk. We have fined several people a total of Tk 50,500 for carrying formalin-contaminated fruit,’ he said, according to a news agency.