Recent findings released by the Ministry of Health's National Food Safety Laboratory of high residues of banned pesticides, and chemical preservatives in fresh produce samples from local markets in Dhaka. confirm the widely held suspicion that food control in Bangladesh is inadequate. The results suggest that farmers are using a cocktail of toxic chemicals in their efforts to fight insect pests and that they are not sufficiently aware of the need to stop using them before harvesting. The results also indicate deliberate adulteration of produce to extend its shelf life, using chemical preservatives without concern for the health of consumers. Other results have previously highlighted contamination by microorganisms, leading to acute food poisoning cases in consumption of fruit, occasionally with tragic consequences. .Food is becoming contaminated in various ways and at various phases. It starts with production and ends with consumption. If we expect a healthy baby then caring should be started from the very beginning that is during preconception, likewise if we want pure and safe food then we have to give deep attention to the initial stages of production. Life cycle of food starts from growing and ends with consumption and environmental management. It has intimate relations with the life cycle of human beings and with the environment. The pillars of food production i.e. natural food producers, farmers, commercial food producers, food industry and restaurants may play key role in healthy food production and healthy life.

The intermediate stages involved in food production and processing affect health both positively and adversely. Firstly comes growing, in this primary crucial stage there is concern about over use of fertilisers and pesticides. Over application of fertilisers and pesticides have both health and environmental effects. So, it is very important to read the fertiliser label clearly and apply properly at recommended level. Here, mass awareness and monitoring is needed by persons and departments concerned to make farmers aware about the adverse impacts of overuse of fertilisers and pesticides. Training of farmers is needed to play proactive role in preventing contamination of raw foods.

Inspection is also needed at field level! Afterwards comes, food selection & purchasing, food preparation, food processing, food preservation, food serving, food consumption and finally waste management at home level. In the border of any country there is the border guard as part of the country’s defence system to protect from the entrance of any foreign persons or products, likewise in our body there is a defence system which acts as the body guard to protect ourselves from any unwanted foreign particles. We don’t want to weaken our defence system (immune system) by consuming health unfriendly foods.Everyone has a right to good health. Ensuring good health of all is the role of all stakeholders. Our mouth is the source of maximum ailments occurring around us. Just like a small word uttered by mouth may create havoc, like that a small impure adulterated food consumed by mouth may cause health hazards.

Food is essential for nourishment and sustenance of life but the appealing term “food” is becoming a name of phobia for us! Everyone is blaming food! Who are the culprits? What shall we eat? What may we do? Food is no more food now; food is appearing as the source of ailments! Very unexpected indeed!At home level, for right food selection extensive consumer awareness programmes are needed and here all involved institutions and organizations like various universities, Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB), Bangladesh Food Safety Authority, and allied organisations should take initiatives.It is expected that consumers will be careful and suspicious enough to check visibly about the organoleptic properties of foods like colour, flavour, texture (hard or soft, crispy or not), size (according to label) and shape (broken or intact).It is also desirable that consumers will select food by considering some other factors i.e in case of packaged food whether it is properly packaged and sealed or not, nutritional labelling or profiling is clearly written or not (production and expiry date along with best use before, how to preserve and discard and most importantly in case of plastic packaging the plastic code must appear clearly on top,etc).In case of unpackaged foods, consumers should select and purchase comparatively the less attractive foods, as natural foods generally are some what odd looking.At home we should be careful enough to maintain quality and safety by maintaining both personal hygiene, food hygiene and utensil hygiene.

Combination of all these may make a food safe for consumption and effective for health.At industrial level, raw materials selection, raw materials sampling and testing, food production, using food colours and flavours, food packaging, nutrient profiling, waste management, food certification, distribution and marketing are important.

All these associated stages up to consumption should be handled very meticulously.At industry level, all stages are very crucial to ensure the quality and safety of foods.A slight negligence may compromise the health of consumers. It is expected that food industries will recruit allied technical employees who will have positive impact on ensuring food quality and safety. At first comes, raw materials quality. Morning shows the day like good raw materials yields good finished products. It is desirable that for optimising the quality, the food industries will look after and monitor the source from which the raw materials will be collected that should be very authentic. After receiving the raw materials at platform or warehouse, sampling should be done very carefully and honestly so that any low graded and non-graded raw materials does not mingle with the good quality materials. Here the hygiene and precaution has to be very perfect. If needed personnel hygiene training should be offered at intervals.The allied materials like colour and flavour dosing and testing is very important for chemical and biological concern. Sample size should not be made very less to save time and money as in the long run avoiding proper sampling and testing may create safety problems.

Here, especially in the production site, which is Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point, good manufacturing practices (GMP) and good laboratory practices (GLP) must be properly maintained and documented and followed thoroughly for the sake of product quality and consumers’ safety. All industries should have proper waste management system or plant through which environmental wastes and hazards can be removed and thus cross contamination of food products can be avoided.Food packaging is another crucial stage which has direct role in food protection. Packaging materials should be product specific and of good quality, especially primary packaging which comes in direct contact with the food. Nutrient labelling or profiling is another hot issue as it shows the information about the foods on which the mass people blindly depend on. It must be done very honestly as addition of any unwanted substance (violation of recommended levels) and omission of any essential nutrients is same as food adulteration.Adulteration of food cheats consumers and can pose serious risk to health in some cases. Common consumers may not have sufficient knowledge about purity and quality of food stuffs they consume. Mere visual inspection does not serve the purpose especially when adulteration has assumed high degree of sophistication. Adulterants are social evils and sometimes even national offenders. Consumers awareness is the remedy to eliminate the evil of adulteration and sale of substandard food stuffs.

Nutrient profiling is described as the science of ranking or classifying foods based on their nutrient composition for the purpose of preventing disease and promoting health.

In case of food packaging and nutrient profiling honesty is a must, yet to avoid misbranding the frequency of inspection and mobile court  need to be increased. Here consumer awareness programmes may also play a very positive role.For achieving sustainable development goals and fulfiling the dream of Sonar Bangladesh of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, food safety issues must be addressed as national prime issue.

As Bangladeshis we feel proud by seeing the progress curve but feel sad when we do not see hospitals and restaurants emerging proportionately! So many restaurants.so much morbidity, so many hospitals! The food growing fields, the food and allied industries, the markets and restaurants should be the areas of food inspection and monitoring.

If people want safer food, they may have to pay more for it. Paying more is not a guarantee of safety in itself. And for many in Bangladesh, paying more is not an option.What to do?

The writer is a freelancer, [email protected]