20pc iftar items in capital adulterated
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A mobile court of Dhaka South City Corporation seizes fruits laced with harmful chemicals from a shop at Purana Paltan in the capital after carrying out a test, inset. The photo was taken on the second day of the Ramadan. Photo: SK Enamul Haq
Around 20 percent of the common iftar items selling in the capital this Ramadan are adulterated, while most of the fruits are laced with harmful chemicals, recent mobile court drives have found. Experts caution that wide scale consumption of these food items can have serious health consequences. To check food adulteration, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institutions (BSTI), Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) and Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) have been conducting mobile court drives since the beginning of Ramadan. The mobile courts have fined 80 institutions Tk 54 lakh between July 22 and July 31 on charge of adulterating food by using chemicals and making food items in unhygienic condition, said Mohammad Saiful Islam, deputy director (certification mark) of BSTI. During the drives, he said, the mobile courts have found adulterated around 20 percent of iftar items like piaju (deep-fried lentil paste), beguni (deep-fried brinjal slices), potato chop (deep-fried mashed potato ball), jelapi (sweet), and halim (a stew-like dish made of wheat, barley, meat, lentils and spices) at different restaurants. Experts said a section of businessmen applied colourings on piaju, beguni and potato chop to add brightness and freshness to these food items to attract buyers. Poisonous colouring agents like auramine, malachite green, and allura red can damage liver and kidney and cause stomach cancer, bladder cancer and asthma, said SK Roy, a former senior scientist at International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (ICDDR,B). Other colouring agents like chrome, tartzine, and erythrosine, which are usually used in spices, sauces, juices, lentils, and oils, may lead to cancer, allergy, and respiratory problems, he said. Anonoda Kumar Biswas, a magistrate of DNCC, said they had found most of the fruits including mangoes, pineapples, rambutan and bananas treated with chemicals. The mobile courts fined different fruit sellers Tk 52,500 during drives in Paltan, Gulistan, Dholaipar and Jatrabari on charges of using formalin and carbide on fruits, he said. Formalin, said SK Roy, is used to ripen fruits. Consumption of formalin-laced food and fruits causes throat cancer, blood cancer, childhood asthma and skin diseases, he added. To make fat profits, traders also use calcium carbide to ripen mangoes, pineapples and bananas during seasons when the fruits are usually not available, said postharvest expert Dr AKM Shameem Alam. He advised people to avoid these fruits which were found in their off season. Calcium carbide may lead to cancer in kidney, liver, skin, prostate and lung. Advising people to avoid fried food items, Prof Dr Golam Mowlah, former director of Institute of Nutrition and Food Science, said cooking oil should be used once, but many food vendors and restaurants reused the oil many times. Once the oil is used for cooking, it becomes oxidized, he said. The more the oil is used, the more it gets toxic and poisonous, said Mowlah, also former director general of BSTI. ICDDR'B scientist SK Roy said poisonous residues of food items had the worst impacts on children's mental and physical growth and women's fertility. It may also cause cancer and damage vital human organs like liver, kidney, and heart, he said. An official of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon (Bapa) and a chemist, Zahidur Rahman, said that after dawn to dusk fasting, the body demanded food and waited to take anything. If a person eats contaminated food, it gets rapidly digested and transported into the blood, causing serious health hazards, he said.
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