Restaurant salad, six street foods found risky for public health

Ready-to-eat salad in restaurants of the capital is most risky for public health, as presence of hazardous pathogenic bacteria has been found in the food items, a study has revealed.
Besides, six street foods also have high levels of Escherichia coli (e-coli), salmonella spp, and vibrio spp bacteria, including chatpati, chhola-muri and sugarcane juice, according to a research by the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA).
The study styled "Prevalence of microbial hazards in street food and ready-to-eat salad items in restaurant and their probable risk analysis" was disclosed at the BFSA-funded research dissemination seminar at its auditorium in the capital on Sunday.
BFSA Chairman Md Zakaria presided over the function while AHM Safiquzzaman, head of the Directorate of National Consumers' Rights Protection (DNCRP), and Dr Mohammad Mustafa, a member of the BFSA, spoke, among others.
These bacteria are known to cause various stomach diseases, including diarrhoea.
Md Latiful Bari, head of the Food Nutrition and Agriculture Research Laboratory under the Centre of Advance Research of Dhaka University and also head of the research team, shared this information at the seminar.
The research focused on street foods like chatpati, chhola-muri (chickpea and puffed rice), sandwiches, sugarcane juice, aloe vera syrup, and ready-to-eat salad in the city restaurants.
A total of 450 samples of these street foods and salads were tested after being collected from 37 zones under Dhaka north and south city corporations.
The study revealed alarming bacterial counts, with an average of 72 million E-coli, 750 salmonella, and 750 Vibrio bacteria found per plate of chholamuri.
Chatpati contained 7.4 million E-coli, 2,000 Salmonella, and 3.0 million Vibrio bacteria. Sandwiches had 2,000 E-coli, 2000 Salmonella, and 160 Vibrio bacteria.
Sugarcane juice showed 65,000 E-coli, 17,000 Salmonella and 13,000 Vibrio bacteria. Aloe vera syrup had 56,000 E-coli, 18,000 Salmonella, and 14,000 Vibrio bacteria.
Salad contained 1,800 E-coli, 510 Salmonella, and 300 Vibrio bacteria, the report reads.
The research also indicated that out of every 10,000 people consuming these street foods, two people fell sick due to E-coli, four due to Salmonella, and one due to Vibrio.
Dr Latiful explained that these germs enter the food due to contaminated water, dirty towels, unclean hands and dusty environments.
The lack of health and sanitation awareness among vendors further exacerbates the problem.
He stressed the need for training and daily monitoring of vendors to ensure safety for street foods.
Another study on "Use of Artificial Fruit Ripening Agents and Development of Fruit Ripening Chamber" was also presented by Prof Dr Abul Hasnat M Solaiman of the Department of Horticulture at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University.
The report mainly focuses on use of artificial agents scientifically to ripen fruits for commercial purposes through lessening post-harvest losses and wastage.

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