Chemicals in food: The misdeed is on

Food security is one of the fundamental rights of all citizens in Bangladesh. It exists when all people, at all times, have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to maintain healthy and productive lives. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation and storage of food in ways that prevent food-borne diseases. This includes a number of routine exercises that should be followed to avoid potentially severe health hazards.
But are the people in this country consuming safe food? Slowly but surely, the entire population is consuming harmful chemicals as part of their food intake. Particularly in case of fresh fruits, the consumers are very much vulnerable. Now almost every food item is either adulterated or contaminated with toxic chemicals causing health hazards including diseases like cancer, kidney or liver failure, memory loss, respiratory problems, infertility, damage of the cardiac system and so on. Mixing of lower quality ingredients is adulteration and adding toxic chemicals is contamination. Both are widely practised in the country. The chemicals used in food include formalin, calcium carbide, sodium cyclamate, colouring agents, dye, urea, DDT, aldrin, chlordane, heptachlor, melamine, burnt engine oil, hormone and sulphuric acid. Studies have also detected the presence of heavy metals like chromium, arsenic, antibiotics and banned pesticides in food.
Food adulteration and contamination pose a serious threat to public health in Bangladesh where the level of awareness among the masses is very low due to poor literacy. So what should the people eat? What should they avoid? It is hard to trust anybody at the time of buying food items. Food adulteration with formalin is now a major cause of concern.
Taking advantage of loopholes in the existing laws, a section of traders are importing chemicals like para-formaldehyde that can be used as a substitute for formalin. Para-formaldehyde is used as an industrial raw material. There is no legal barrier for import of this substance. It is a colourless chemical substance commonly used to preserve food for longer time. When it is mixed with food in an excess amount, the chemical is converted into more rigid substance that gives the lasting rigidity of the food for long term preservation.
 We all are concerned about formalin use in food but to what extent or level formalin is harmful is not yet reported in Bangladesh. WHO says fruits and vegetables typically contain 3-60 mg (microgram) formaldehyde per kg, milk and milk products about 1mg, meat and fish 6-20 mg and shell fish 1-100 mg. The daily intake of formalin is difficult to evaluate, but a rough estimate from the available data is in the range of 1.5-14 mg a day for an average adult.
A BRAC study says there is a certain amount of formaldehyde in the human body which is vital for metabolism. If consumed within the permissible limit, it transforms into less toxic formic acid and gets out of the body through urine. A part of formaldehyde also transforms into CO2 and gets out through the respiratory system. However, the authorities concerned are yet to conduct any research on it to fix a permissible limit for formalin intake. Many well-known pesticide companies and chemical factories are importing over a dozen of harmful ripening agents and marketing these under different names like Sundori, Tomtom, Harvest, Riser, Promote, Ripen, Prolong, Ethrel, Remote, Action and Gold Plus. None of these is legal.
The government has never approved any ripening agent. It only has approved two plant growth regulator (PGR) hormones that are applied to make fruits grow bigger and look more attractive. Farmers get these chemicals easily from traders and use them excessively in fruits like mangoes, litchis, bananas, pineapples, melons and papayas, and vegetables like tomatoes to quicken ripening. The process of fruit ripening is mainly accelerated by ethylene. Besides ethylene or ethephon, calcium carbide is also widely used for ripening fruits, when carbide comes in contact with moisture, it produces acetylene gas. Acetylene acts like ethylene and accelerates the ripening process. To remove the consumers' phobia about chemicals in food the government should take immediate steps as regards:   
1.    setting up food safety standards
2.    extensive research to find out the extent of chemicals in food and fruits and right kits to detect those
3.    information exchange with other countries about food safety mechanism
4.    effective enforcement of laws
5.    introduction of Good Agricultural Practices(GAP)
6.    awareness and maintenance of food safety and personal hygiene

Dr Md Shafayet Hossain is Deputy Manager (SP&P), BADC, DHAKA.
shafayetbadc@gmail.com