Supermarkets have started to voluntarily pull out Pran's turmeric powder from the shelves in the wake of detection of excessive lead in the product by the US authorities.
"We have decided to remove Pran's turmeric powder for the time being given the consumers' concerns," Sabbir Hasan Nasir, executive director of Shwapno, which has 43 outlets in Bangladesh and one franchise in London, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The retail chain, run by ACI Logistics, also plans to test the product on its own at the Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR). "Based on the test result, we will take our next decision," Nasir added.
Shaheen Khan, chief operating officer of Meena Bazar, which has 18 stores in the country, said the supermarket chain has stopped selling the product from yesterday after customers' voiced concerns.
“If the US authorities have found something wrong in a Pran product, the matter must be taken up seriously. And this isn't the first time that allegations of food adulteration have come up against Pran,” said Nazim Ahmed, who regularly purchases Pran products for his household.
He went on to say that the company has become “too aggressive” in its growth ambitions, so much that it has “lost sight of standards of quality”.
“I am not taking any chances with my family's health. I will boycott Pran's products from now onwards,” said Hafsa Begum, a housewife who uses Pran's spices.
Meanwhile, the commerce ministry yesterday instructed the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP) to collect samples from the home market and test them in government laboratories including the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).
Meena Bazar will take its next step after learning the formal reactions of BSTI and the other concerned government agencies, Khan added.
However, the government has neither given the DNCRP a timeframe for filing of the report nor announced any interim measures before the test results are out.
Asked, Commerce Minister Ghulam Mohammed Quader said the government cannot take any action without proof. "We cannot take any action unless it becomes disqualified in the test results of BSTI -- we have no legal basis to advise consumers to avoid purchasing the product."
The developments come amid Pran's refusal to recall the product from the local market despite detection of lead as high as 53 parts per million (ppm) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and New York State Health Department. The permissible limit of lead in Bangladesh is 2.5ppm, according to the BSTI.
The country's one of the largest food processors, Pran claims that it had tested its turmeric powder on October 10 at the BSTI and BCSIR and is “100 percent sure” that there is no lead in the product.
High levels of lead consumption, particularly by infants, small children and pregnant women, can lead to delayed mental and physical development and learning deficiencies, said FDA in its press release posted on October 17.
“This obstinate behaviour of Pran is very irresponsible. So is the government's sluggish response,” said Sultana Ahmed, another housewife who uses Pran's spices.
So far, four stores in the US have recalled the product.