Citizens helplessly feeding on adulterated food items
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: June 18, 2022 -

THE recent case of death of a 35-year-old man from Thongju assembly constituency and hospitalisation of his three other family members due to food poisoning is indeed a serious cause for concern.

There has always been strong suspicion about sincerity of traders dealing in consumable items, vegetables and fruits, as could be comprehended from periodical reports of citizens undergoing treatment due to suspected cases of food poisoning as well as drives carried out periodically by personnel of food safety units to prevent adulteration of food.

Thus, the death of the Thongju man could be confirmed as food crop growers and sellers not according importance to safety of the consumers. As stated by Health Services director Dr K Rajo, the exact source of the food poisoning case in Thongju could be ascertained only after samples sent for laboratory testing are examined.

Nevertheless, the director's observation that the stale 'Ngari' (fermented fish) found consumed by the Thongju family might be the likely cause of food poisoning case has left nothing to doubt that the foods we are consuming are far from being safe.

As per the director, consumption of sponge gourd dish, as feared earlier, might not be the reason for the death and hospitalisation of the family members from Thongju but the incident calls from preventive measures effective enough to curb unethical trading practices.

From past cases of injecting water inside LPG cylinder to maintain the prescribed weight, lacing chemicals with fish, vegetables and fruits unearthing of a warehouse for repackaging expired consumer items, there were strong evidences that traders in Manipur are not reliable when it comes to ethical trading.

That the masses have been using/consuming edibles with questionable nutritional contents and facing health risk could also be ascertained from many food items flooding the state's markets from neighbouring Myanmar without any mention of the ingredients or validity date.

Consumption of locally manufactured goods is also equally worrisome if one takes note of the fact that impurities were found in packaged drinking water and processed food items, including products bearing names of established/reputed food manufacturers as well as locally made bakery items.

Past incidents of banana sellers caught red-handed mixing Chemicals to ripen the fruit, controversy over sale of iced fishes laced with formalin and traders hoarding fertilizers to hike the price in the black market-to name a few cases of illegal trade practices-all suggest that there is no shortage of knavish business persons in the state.

Adding water to milk and then mixing the concoction with other chemicals to maintain the thickness level and right colour are also common practices.

It is also a known fact that many hotels use left-over oil or blend used tea leaves with fresh ones to save their expenditures.

Presence of such unscrupulous people could be due to incompetency of the enforcement authorities or technological and manpower shortages in the government agencies which exist to specifically prevent production and sale of spurious products and deal with the rogue elements firmly.

All these past cases imply that adulteration of food is a very serious problem posing serious health risks to many in the state.

Therefore, it is suggested that the government authorities focus on dealing strictly with those who engage in food adulteration.

One way of doing this is by hiking the penalty, including making it analogous to attempt to murder in accordance to severity of cases of adulteration.

It is equally important to utilise the mobile testing laboratory to regularly or randomly check food stuff for adulteration and ensure speedy trials through specific fast track courts.