Dude, who poisoned my food?

Adulteration of food with toxic chemicals has reached an epic proportions in Bangladesh. It has been called the ‘silent killer’.

It is almost impossible to find a sector which is free of adulteration. From raw vegetable and fruits to milk and milk products to fish, meat and processed food–every food item is contaminated. Every day I read in the newspapers about a newer method of adulterating foods. Carbide, formalin, textile colours, artificial sweeteners, DDT, urea etc. are used rampantly.

Chemical agents like calcium carbide are randomly being used for ripening different kinds of fruits like banana, mango, papaya, tomato and pineapple and also to keep them fresh.

Most of the red chilli powder used in the market is adulterated - in most cases the spices are mixed with brick dust. Fine sawdust is also often mixed with cumin and other ground spices. Honey is also frequently adulterated, as sugar syrup is often mixed with honey to enhance the sweetness.

Pure butter oil and ghee are also very rare in the market as dishonest traders use a host of ingredients such as animal fat, palm oil, potato mash, and vegetable oil to produce fake butter oil. They even mix soap ingredients like steirian oil with ghee, to increase the proportions.

Condensed milk produced by Bangladeshi manufacturers contains little or no milk and is in fact condensed vegetable fat. Sweetmeat makers unaware of existence of food colouring use only
industrial dyes in their products. Dough makers put sulphuric acid in hot milk to make it thicken quickly.

The chemical fertiliser urea is used in the rice to make it whiter and formaldehyde (used to preserve dead-bodies) is used in fish, meats and fruits to keep them fresh-looking.

In the long run, these chemicals in food adversely affect vital organs such as the liver and kidney resulting in organ failure and/or cancer and thus, untimely loss of life.

Ironically, people are aware of the hazards of taking foods adulterated with toxic chemicals, but this knowledge is not translated into practice. They are still buying and consuming these adulterated foods because of several factors: absence or unavailability of non-adulterated food, appearance, costs, cultural factors, food habits etc.Occasionally, the authorities will be suddenly in an active mode, and conduct mobile courts to penalize sellers/producers for selling contaminated products/foods. Then, there will be a lull for a few days and after few weeks, business becomes as usual.

The strategy that I came up with is simple, yet far from being bulletproof:

If the flies do not like it, then I won't like it either. If I do not see anything being attracted by the "fresh" meat/fruit/vegetable, there is probably a reason for it.