Vermicelli,flour tainted with formalin

At least 87 percent of flour and 78 percent of vermicelli marketed in Dhaka were found to have contained formalin, Poribesh Bachao Andolon (Poba) said yesterday on the basis of tests conducted by a questionable kit - Formaldehyde Meter Z-300.

Following a High Court order in late July this year, Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) said the machine is not appropriate for detecting formalin in food items, but meant for identifying chemicals in the environment.

The machine may indicate misleading information about formalin in presence of evaporable chemicals -- like acetone, formic acid, acetic acid and methanol -- alongside formaldehyde, according to the BCSIR report.

Poba tested 15 samples of flour and 9 samples of vermicelli with the kit between September 7 and September 23 this year, and found the range of formalin in flour between 0.32ppm and 4.80ppm and between 0.84 and 136.62ppm in vermicelli, the organisation said at a press conference at its office in the capital.

The citizens' body also tested 108 samples of various fruits -- mangoes, apples, grapes, malta (sweet orange), orange, banana, guava, pomegranate, pineapples, hog plum and shaddock -- during the same period.

It found formalin up to 25.58ppm in 80 percent of pineapples, up to 5.42ppm in 75 percent of oranges, up to 49.38ppm in 71 percent of malta and up to 65.30ppm formalin in 67 percent of mangoes, said Poba Executive General Secretary Abdus Sobhan.

Asked why they had used the questionable device, Sobhan said they have done it as various government agencies have been using it until now.

Poba Chairman Abu Naser Khan also spoke at the conference.