Checking Food Adulteration
Need for single regulatory body underscored
Speakers at a roundtable yesterday stressed the need for a single regulatory body to check food adulteration and sub-standard drugs in Bangladesh.
Presenting the keynote paper, Pharmacy faculty acting dean of Dhaka University Prof ABM Farooque said the government regulatory bodies like BSTI and DCC's Food and Sanitation Department do not play significant role to ensure quality of food. So, a single and independent body is necessary to ensure quality of food, drugs, household products, agricultural products etc, he added.
Poribesh Bachao Andolan (Poba) and Eastern University organised the roundtable at the Jatiya Press Club in the capital yesterday.
Bangladeshi food items are not getting international market due to adulteration, observed ABM Farooque.
He said formalin is used to preserve milk, DDT and heptachlor are used to preserve dried fishes while calcium carbide, copper sulphate, potash solution and other chemicals are used to ripe fruits artificially as well as hormones used to fattening cows, poultry and fishes.
Consumption of such chemicals through food items is severely damaging people's health, specially children, pregnant women and old age people, he said.
Experts at the roundtable said people are suffering from various diseases, including cancer, heart problems, and lever cirrhosis due to the rampant use of chemicals in food items.
Professor of Dhaka University's Marketing department ABM Shahidul Islam moderated the discussion.
POBA Chairman Abu Naser Khan, Vice Chancellor of Eastern University Nurul Islam, General Secretary of Khelaghar, Dr Lelin Chowdhury, Former director (food and nutrition science department) of BCSIR also spoke at the roundtable.
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