Messages

1

Nutrition and Food Engineering / Fruit ripening chemicals

« on: April 22, 2017, 11:27:15 PM »

Over a dozen harmful ripening agents have flooded the market amid lax government monitoring, and unscrupulous traders and growers are using them on fruits at will, posing a threat to public health.
Many well-known pesticide companies and chemical factories are importing ripening agents and marketing these under different names like Sundori, Tomtom, Harvest, Riser, Promote, Ripe, Ripen, Eden, Prolong, Ethrel, Remote, Garden, Action and Gold Plus.
None of these is legal. In fact, the government has never approved any ripening agent. It only has approved two plant growth regulators (PGRs), hormones that are applied to make fruits grow bigger and look more attractive, said officials in the Department of Agricultural Extension's (DAE) regulatory wing.
The importers of ripening agents dupe the government by saying they are only importing the PGRs.  They get away with this, as the government has no mechanism in place to monitor what is being imported and marketed, said industry insiders.

2

Public Health / Fruit ripening chemicals

« on: April 22, 2017, 11:25:50 PM »

Over a dozen harmful ripening agents have flooded the market amid lax government monitoring, and unscrupulous traders and growers are using them on fruits at will, posing a threat to public health.
Many well-known pesticide companies and chemical factories are importing ripening agents and marketing these under different names like Sundori, Tomtom, Harvest, Riser, Promote, Ripe, Ripen, Eden, Prolong, Ethrel, Remote, Garden, Action and Gold Plus.
None of these is legal. In fact, the government has never approved any ripening agent. It only has approved two plant growth regulators (PGRs), hormones that are applied to make fruits grow bigger and look more attractive, said officials in the Department of Agricultural Extension's (DAE) regulatory wing.
The importers of ripening agents dupe the government by saying they are only importing the PGRs.  They get away with this, as the government has no mechanism in place to monitor what is being imported and marketed, said industry insiders.

3

Public Health / Old formalin in new bottle

« on: April 22, 2017, 11:13:51 PM »

Taking advantage of loopholes in the existing law, a section of traders is importing chemicals like paraformaldehyde that can be used as a substitute for formalin.
Though import of formalin, a highly toxic chemical solution, has dropped drastically in recent times, import of chemicals similar to formalin has spiked after restrictions were imposed on formalin import.
In March last year, the government amended the import policy 2012-15 and put restrictions on the import, use and storage of formalin to check its widespread use in food items.
But only formalin's name was mentioned in the amendment, leaving out the other harmful chemicals similar to it.
Cashing in on this, traders imported 10,397 tonnes of paraformaldehyde in fiscal 2012-13, according to the National Board of Revenue.
At least 7,833 tonnes of paraformaldehyde were imported in 2011-12 while the amount was 7,268 tonnes in 2010-11, as shown in NBR data.
“Paraformaldehyde is used as an industrial raw material. There is no legal obstacle to import of this. So, we release this material from the customs in line with the import policy,” said Mohammad Masud Sadik, commissioner of customs house in Chittagong by phone.
But a section of traders turn this paraformaldehyde into formalin, he said.
“Though we are well aware of the abuse of paraformaldehyde, we cannot bar its release from the customs, as the import policy does not say anything to that end,” he continued.
“We check a lot of documents regarding import of formalin as the government has imposed restrictions on import of this chemical in the amended import policy.”

4

Nutrition and Food Engineering / Pesticides used 15 times the limit

« on: April 22, 2017, 11:07:11 PM »

Apart from the pervasive adulteration of food, excessive use of pesticides, often of below par quality, in the cultivation phase poses serious threats to human health.
A new study finds that almost one-third of the pesticides used in farming vegetables and fruits in the country are substandard.
This is forcing farmers to apply excessive doses of pesticides that, experts say, not only raises the production cost but also causes grave health hazards to consumers in the long run.
Worse still, the overdosing of these subpar chemicals is strengthening resistance in the insects, which means standard doses cannot kill them in many cases.
The monitoring authorities admit the fact and claim they were doing their part to maintain pesticide standards. Food safety activists, however, say monitoring at the field level is weak and must be intensified to ensure both quality and proper doses of pesticides.

THE RESEARCH
For the study, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) collected 32 pesticide samples of different brands.
After testing them, it found 30 percent of the pesticides contained active or key ingredients of half the prescribed quantity.
“The findings indicate a lot about the overall standard of pesticides,” said Dr Monirul Islam, director (nutrition) of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), who coordinated the study released last July.
The research, commissioned and published by the BARC, also says that due to the diminished impact of the pesticides, farmers now have to use pesticides 10-15 times the prescribed amount for producing fruits and 8-10 times for growing vegetables.
The truth of this was found in what Tariqul Islam, a farmer from Kodalia of Jessore Sadar, said: "About 10 years ago, we used to apply pesticides once a month or sometimes twice. But now many of us have to apply it every week, and even twice or thrice a week in some cases."
“I know of some incidents in which agriculture officials prescribed a particular pesticide but it did not work. Then farmers mixed two or three different pesticides and sprayed the mixture on vegetables,” he told The Daily Star over the phone.
BARI Director General Dr Rafiqul Islam Mondal said while adulteration could be a reason behind the excessive use of pesticides, many farmers did not know the right doses either.
Farmers' awareness of a proper application of pesticides is crucial in checking extensive use of these toxic chemicals, he added.