Many of the government officials working on food safety are corrupt, observed Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, general secretary of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh.

Over 10 thousand samples of more than 50 different food items were tested at the Institute of Public Health in 2012-13.  About 60 percent of the samples were found adulterated or contaminated

The importers of ripening agents dupe the government by saying they are only importing the PGRs.  They get away with this, as the government has no mechanism in place to monitor what is being imported and marketed, said industry insiders.

Imported by the Department of Fisheries two years ago without any scientific assessment, the machine is mostly used for measuring formalin in the environment, said Barc.