Ensure safe foods

Green activists yesterday urged the government to take effective steps to ensure that safe iftari and food items are marketed in the holy month of Ramadan to protect people from serious health hazards, reports UNB.
They also called upon the businessmen to refrain from mixing poisonous and adulterated ingredients in foods including Iftari, reports our staff correspondent.
They suggested that the authorities concerned monitor and control origin of food production to ensure unadulterated food supply.
The demands were made at a human chain arranged by Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba) in front of Chawkbazar Shahi Mosque in the capital.
A section of unscrupulous traders uses various chemicals including formalin in fruits and fish to keep those fresh for long, they said.
Referring to experts' comments, they said there was no way to mislead people about formalin by saying that a specific level of formalin was tolerable to human health.
Formalin is not a preservative; it is a poison and a serious threat to public health, they said, adding that the access to safe food was a right of consumers, but people were being deprived of their rights, UNB added.  
The activists recommended creating awareness among businessmen and consumers about the deadliest aspects of formalin and other chemical ingredients through mass media, our staff correspondent added.  
They demanded enacting the proposed “Formalin Control Bill 2014” without any provision allowing a certain level of formalin, stringent punishment including hefty fines for those to be found responsible for food contamination, setting up a control room, and launching surprise raids on food warehouses and factories by anti-adulteration teams.
Poba Secretary Abdus Sobhan, Modern Club President Abul Hasnat, Green Mind Society President Amir Hossain, Bangladesh Peace Movement President Prof Kamal Ataur Rhman, and Poba coordinator Atiq Morshed, among others, spoke.