Ensuring pure and safe food

Contamination and adulteration of food products has become a major threat for public health in Bangladesh. This also poses serious danger to the physical and mental growth of the children -- even when a child is in the womb of its mother. There should not be any doubt that access to healthy food is a fundamental right of every citizen. But adulteration or contamination of food with toxic and biochemical substances has gone to such an extent that pure and safe food is scarcely available in the market. Irrespective of their knowledge, people are compelled to buy these hazardous foods to eat and feed their children.
Fortunately, the media and some research institutions are at work to increase our awareness about food safety. They have revealed how vegetables, fruits, fish, meat, milk, bakery products, sweetmeats, ice-cream, soft drinks and food grains are being adulterated and contaminated with toxic materials. Stories are being published regularly about poultry, dairy and fish feeds being produced from tannery wastes - contaminated with metallic elements like lead, chromium and cadmium. These harmful elements are creeping into our bodies through the consumption of eggs, chicken, fish, meat and milk. Eventually, these cause adverse biochemical reactions to our vital organs resulting in deadly complications in the long run.
 According to a recent study by the Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN), 89 per cent of powdered-milk in the local market is contaminated in various ways while liquid-milk has been found to be contaminated with Aldrin - a toxic chemical now used in dairy firms! Additionally, liquid-milk is also adulterated with dangerous substances like formalin, boric acid, sodium carbonate, caustic soda, hydrogen per-oxide, and urea. Simultaneously, they can spoil our vital organs (kidney, liver, brain, bone marrow and respiratory tract) and cause cancer.
The current state of the food products confirms that we are in a big trouble. The prevailing reality implies that food adulteration is a collective criminality that threatens our lives at any point of time. Recent statistics have disclosed that more than 300,000 people in Bangladesh are suffering from cancer. Health specialists are warning that the continuing trend of food adulteration may double the number of cancer patients within 5 to 10 years. Surprisingly, the minors are also suffering from liver, kidney and heart diseases, a fact that validate a strong linkage of these serious ailments with adulterated food.
People are getting increasingly pessimistic as they do not see any hope for solution to food adulteration in the near future. Many Dhakaites have stopped purchasing or eating fruits, eggs, milk and chicken to avoid health risks associated with the consumption of unhygienic and hazardous food.
People are sceptical whether the Safe Food Act which became effective since February this year will be able to protect them from consuming hazardous foods. The government has established the Safe Food Authority (SFA) to set the standards of food safety and enforce the law to achieve the goal of ensuring pure and safe food for the people. But the effectiveness of the drive depends a good deal on how strictly and efficiently it is followed up and enforced.
It is true that besides the unscrupulous elements engaged in adulteration, farmers almost everywhere in the country use an assortment of chemicals for the protection of their crops from the attack of insects and diseases. Usually, they fail to choose the right chemicals and determine the right dose due to ignorance. In their effort to increase their yields and also to extend the shelf life of their products, particularly fruits and vegetables, some of them use various harmful chemicals and ripening agents.
Farmers should be trained on how to apply chemicals and at what proportion. They should also be motivated not to apply harmful chemicals to food items. At the same time, stern measures should be taken against the violators.
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