& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Down to Earth

Hazards of Eating Out

By A S M Nurunnabi
Eating out is normally considered a pleasant diversion in city life. However, sometimes it entails pitfalls which may prove disconcerting. We find two pictures in the matter of eating out.
One relates to the vast numbers of common people meeting their daily needs for foods not connected with home cooking. In other words, such people mainly depend on foods predominantly catered by outside eateries. For such people, eating out is not a pleasant diversion but a basic necessity.
There is another picture of food catering. This is done by more modern, well-furnished and shiny establishments in the new parts of the city. Eating out at such places may be deemed a pleasant outdoor activity.
As regards the first category of people, vast in number, who can t depend on home cooking, it may be stated that they form an Inseparable part of our city life. Here socio-economic factors play an important role in their growing importance. Due to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, people are becoming more and more busy with their jobs which leave them little time is prepare food at home. Many of people are migrants from rural areas who have settled down under extremely poor conditions in urban slums where basic services are non-existent or very- limited at best. The lack of water and electricity, lack of facilities to prepare food at home, the distance between home and work place and the time constraint and above all. their compara-
tive cheapness of the food all contribute to the growing dependence on outside supplies ol food.
Bangladesh is experiencing one of the highest urban growth rates in the region. Commensurate with this trend, the urban people's dependence on food supplied by the low-profile roadside eateries and other makeshift establishments has been making a significant rise. In most cases, the dispensers of such foods are lacking in knowledge of hygiene and nutrition. The lack of control by the relevant authorities pose serious health risk for the consumers.
Such foods in Dhaka, though lacking in proper health standard and thus posing a health hazard, seem to have come to stay. Keeping this in view and considering their necessity in the day-to-day life of certain economic-strata of the city dwellers (here seems to be no point in discouraging them in terms of municipal law. In any case, such a (rend is bound to proliferate in the absence of ef-fective control by the concerned authorities. But the ways this business is conducted in most cases need be changed with a firm guidance. With a view to raising the unhygienic and substandard items of food to a Eroper healthy standard, the ealth authorities need to initiate basic actions including, among other things, strict food quality control measures, supply of clean water and use of safe raw materials for preparation of such foods.
As regards the other side of the picture of food catering done
by the posh food establishments. it seems there is scope for misgivings about the quality of food offered by some of them. There has been lately a rapid growth of such high-profile restaurants in Gulshan. Banani. Dhanmondi. Uttara and some other important spots. They offer a variety of cuisines, viz. Chinese, Thai, Indian. Continental, etc. The exteriors of such establishments are found to be impressive. with eye-catching decor, seating arrangements and the modern facilities. These attractive food Joints are inevitably considered elite and exclusive with high tariff rates.
We sometimes hear of reports of incidents of digestive ailments and even food poisoning resulting from consumption of foods or soups served at some of these shiny restaurants. These are disturbing reports. According to some observers who had access to information about some victims of consumption of the questionable qualities of food items at some of these high-profile Joints there are reasons to feel that something must be quite wrong in the kitchens and the food handling staff working there; otherwise such undesirable incidents would not have occurred.
For the clients of these establishments. who pay a high price for the professed high standard of food and sendee, maintenance of hygienic conditions in the kitchens during serving are more important than the shiny exterior and decor of the places.