Chemicals in foods
Rotten, unhygienic, and expired food products, etc cause widespread health problem in Bangladesh. It is a habitual offence that needs to be addressed by public awareness and education. Simply, taking these kinds of date-expired or rotten foods in our stomach will definitely make us sick though not gravely. But consuming formalin mixed fish and mobile mixed oil cooked foods will slowly lead us to death. Stories often appear in newspapers of dried fish being preserved with officially banned DDT powder or other insecticides. Fish is no longer a favourite option for many city dwellers on their everyday menu, as the sale of formalin-laced fish has become a rampant practice in the city's kitchen markets, endangering public health. It is not just fish that is treated with harmful chemicals; urea fertilizer is being used to make puffed rice, an essential item that goes with almost all iftar items to make it whiter and more attractive. These unscrupulous traders invariably claim that the products they sell are fresh and not treated with chemicals for business purposes. Even milk sellers use drops of formalin to keep their pots of milk fresh. If anyone asks the vendors how they keep the fish, fruits and vegetables fresh, some of them may give a simple yet hazardous answer, “medicine”. Medicine here means formalin and calcium carbide. Carbides are used to ripen fruits. Scientists and doctors have warned that sustained consumption of food laced with toxic chemicals has debilitating effect on the human body and could even lead to multiple failures of such vital organs as liver and kidney. But who cares?
Such activities have to be contained on a apriority basis. Chemicals should be used in foods as per permissible level and it should be mentioned at the packet to make consumers aware. Our government must take proper steps to stop indiscriminate use of chemicals because millions of lives are at stake.
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