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Food adulteration is still rampant across the country although the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has intensified its efforts to check such malpractice since 2015.
During the four-year period from August 2015 to July 2019, the mobile courts of BFSA have conducted a total of 5,743 anti-adulteration drives, convicted 10,147 people, sent 258 offenders to jail and realised over Tk 88.27 million in fines, according to a report of the BFSA.
A total of 10,231 cases were also lodged against the offenders for violating the law, the BFSA data showed.
The mobile courts are run by executive magistrates under the Food Safety Act, 2013.
Besides, the agency has tested 8,391 food samples at the laboratory in fiscal year 2017-18 after food inspectors of the health ministry collected them from the market.
During the tests, 745 samples were found adulterated and 2,372 samples unadulterated. The BFSA filed 118 cases in this connection.
Also, the BFSA with the support of food inspectors of the city corporations collected and tested 272 samples at the laboratory and found 42 samples adulterated, according to the BFSA data.
Experts say such contaminated and unsafe foods have put public health in jeopardy as consumption of such foods have been causing a number of acute and life-long diseases from diarrhoea to variants of cancer.
The BFSA officials said the agency needs more manpower and state-of-the-art laboratories and equipment to effectively fight the food adulteration.
Secretary of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) advocate Humayun Kabir said food adulteration continues unabated in the country as the number of drives conducted by the BFSA is too inadequate.
There is also a lack of coordination between the BFSA and the public and private organisations that are working to ensure food safety, he said.
The BFSA should expand its awareness programmes across the country, he suggested.
He also called for immediate steps to check food adulteration and contamination to protect people from health hazards.
BFSA Chairman Syeda Sarwar Jahan said food adulteration still prevails in the country although the agency has stepped up its activities to check such malpractice.
It is absolutely necessary to monitor and supervise the supply chain management of all types of food in order to prevent widespread food adulteration, she said.
Despite the shortage of manpower, the authority has been making all-out efforts to curb all kinds of adulteration and contamination, she added.
The BFSA chief also hinted that a group of officers will be recruited by October this year and deployed at the district level to strengthen the monitoring activities.
She also stressed the need for reinforcing the supervision and monitoring by the food safety committees, which were formed across the country, to ensure safe foods.
The food safety authority alone cannot curb the widespread adulteration, she said, adding that people from all walks of life should also play a conscientious role in this regard, she mentioned.