We conducted this study to investigate the magnitude of food adulteration during 1995–2011 and consumer awareness in Dhaka city. We reviewed results of food sample testing by Public Health Food Laboratory of Dhaka City Corporation, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution, Consumers Association of Bangladesh publications, reports from lay press, including those on mobile magistrate court operations. We conducted a cross-sectional survey among 96 residents of Dhaka city, using a structured questionnaire in 2006. The overall proportion of food samples adulterated decreased during 2001-2005, and 40-54% of daily-consumed food was adulterated during 1995-2011. More than 35 food items were commonly adulterated. Consumers considered expiry date and quality or freshness as the best criteria while buying packaged and open food items respectively; only 11 (12%) respondents considered approval of regulatory authority for buying packaged food items. More than half of the food consumed in Dhaka city is adulterated, which warrants actions by the Government, the industry, and the consumers.
Food safety, an important global public health issue to ensure sound health, refers to addressing “all those hazards, whether chronic or acute, that may make food injurious to the health of the consumer” (1). Important food hazards include microbial hazards, pesticide residues, misuse of additives, chemical contaminants, including biological toxins and adulteration. Although microbiological contamination and chemical hazards have received most attention, it is recognized that food adulteration and food fraud should not be neglected considering their role in public health (2). Food adulteration includes various forms of practices, such as mixing, substituting, concealing the quality of food by mislabelling, putting up decomposed or expired food, and adding toxic substances (3). It is an age-old problem that affects people at all societal strata. The consequences of food adulteration are two-fold for the consumers: the economic loss by paying more for lower-quality food items and the health hazards. The health hazards can result from either addition of deleterious substances or removal of a vital component (4). Some adulterants may even lead to death (1,3).
Most of the food items collected from the respondents’ residents were found adulterated in a study conducted in Haryana, India, and the main adulterants in food samples included water in milk, chalk powder in turmeric powder or sugar, artificial colour in chili powder, water-soluble colour in green and black gram, artificial colour in chickpea flour, and essential oil removed from cardamom (5). More than half of the food samples tested during 2002 at the Institute of Public Health in Dhaka were adulterated; among the samples tested, 100% samples of butter oil and banaspati dalda, 90% condensed milk/sweetmeats, 72.3% ghee and honey, and 57.2% cow's milk were adulterated (6). During 2002-2003, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) had 250 surveillance team/mobile courts that collected 226 food samples from open market for testing, issued 117 show-cause notices to manufacturers for substandard products, cancelled 45 trade licenses, and undertook 35 legal actions (7). The mobile court raids against food adulteration intensified in 2005 when electronic and print media featured reports on horrendous food adulteration practices. Sixty-four percent sellers/producers in a study in Bangladesh reported using chemicals in their products, although 74% were aware that mixing chemicals with food was harmful to health. They used harmful chemicals to make the products more lucrative, increase shelf-life, substitute for unavailable natural raw materials, and reduce price of the goods (8). Recently, a growing concern has been the use of prohibited food colours, such as textile dyes in many foods to increase acceptability of food (9). Nearly half of the samples of sweetmeats and confectionary items contained non-permitted food colours in Pakistan (10). In India, consumption of non-permitted textile colours or abuse of colours were attributed to reported foodborne illnesses (11).
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