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Food Safety Law

'Enforcement to take long'

Staff Correspondent
The implementation of Safe Food Act 2013 will take long, Food Minister Qamrul Islam said yesterday, two days after the High Court ordered the government to enforce the law in two months.
The court on July 20 asked the law secretary to enforce the law after finalising the relevant rules and issuing a gazette notification within the stipulated time.
India and Malaysia have similar laws in place to ensure food safety, whose implementation took three to four years, the minister said at a discussion about food safety, organised by online news portal - amarhealth.com - at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.
"The implementation of the law [2013 act] will take time... because it is a huge task," he said but did not explain what steps were to be taken to complete the "huge task".
Late last year, the government passed the act providing for formation of a single body, Food Safety Authority, which is to act in coordination with 13 ministries against food adulteration.
The act was passed in the wake of reports of harmful chemicals, including formalin, calcium carbide, DDT, additives and excessive pesticides being used in crops, fish, vegetable and fruit over the years.
Recent studies also found chromium in poultry and livestock feed, which can enter the food chain and cause cancerous diseases to people. Researchers also found antibiotics in poultry meat at a higher level than what is permissible.
Acknowledging the facts, the food minister said the formation of Food Safety Authority was underway.
"The government has taken a zerotolerance policy against food contamination. No one will be spared if found mixing harmful elements in food," Qamrul said.
However, the country has witnessed sporadic actions, basically operations of mobile courts against food contamination. The government has drawn criticism for not even fixing the levels of additives or ripening agents, which could be permitted in food items.
Besides, the accuracy of formalin detector, Formaldehyde Meter Z-300, widely used by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in recent drives, has been questioned.
At the discussion, Deen Mohammad Noorul Huq, director general of the Directorate General of
Health Services, said whimsical actions against food contamination would not yield much result.
"Fruits cannot be destroyed just if some amount of formalin is found, as there is a permissible limit."
Huq said Bangladesh now had National Food Safety Laboratory of international standards, and that sanitary inspectors working under the food ministry at the local-level across the country were being more equipped to monitor food standards.
"We will conduct lab tests throughout the year," he added.
DMP Commissioner Benazir Ahmed said law enforcers had initially begun drives against formalin, but would gradually launch operation against all sorts of harmful chemicals used to treat food items by vested quarters.
Operation against chemical-laced foods will be intensified next year, he added.
The imported food items must go through vigorous inspections, Benazir said, adding scattered efforts by various agencies would not be effective in fighting food adulteration.
"If we cannot stop toxic elements being used in food, we will have handicapped generations," the DMP commissioner said.