UN-FAO-backed lab finds chemicals in Bangladeshi food

In an alarming revelation for already troubled Bangladeshi consumers, a new UN-FAO-backed lab in Dhaka has found the presence of chemicals “at serious level” in common food items that pose public health threat.

The National Food Safety Laboratory opened Oct 2012 at the Institute of Public Health found nearly 40 percent of 82 samples of milk and milk products, fish, fruits and vegetables full of banned “DDT, Aldrin, Chlordane, Heptachlor and others”.

Those pesticides are present “at 3 to 20 times the limits set by the European Union”, according to the summary of the lab findings -- a copy of which is with bdnews24.com.

Of the tested vegetables, 50 percent were found contaminated with those pesticides while it was 35 percent of the tested fruits.

The findings baffled FAO Representative in Dhaka Mike Robson who told bdnews24.com that the food safety was “the biggest issue” for Bangladesh.

The problem was that “you have no real control over the food quality and safety system”, he said.

It was not clear to him how those banned pesticides found their way into food products.

Arsenic which is one of the largest environmental health hazards in Bangladesh was also found in at least five of 13 rice samples they tested. The presence of arsenic was found above 1 mg/kg level which was considered “unsafe”.

Chromium has also been found in those five samples.

The FAO analysts who run the lab picked up common food items from Mohakhali, Karwan Bazar and Gulshan market and these included all renowned market brands.

But they would not name any of the brands since they tested collecting them on their own for their “understanding”.

“But we will submit it to the health ministry through IPH,” said Senior National Advisor Prof Shah Monir Hossain, who was a Director General of Health Services.

“But of course without name (of the companies).”

“It will set the alarm bell ringing and now it’s the government’s duty to find out. If the government brings (to us) any sample to know about it, we will test that,” he told bdnews24.com.

The lab also analysed more than 30 samples of turmeric powder – branded, packaged and loose – for the presence of lead and metals and confirmed their presence.

The presence of lead in turmeric hit headlines six months ago.

According to the summary report, those samples contained lead at 20-50 times above the safe limit of 2.5 parts per million (PPM) set by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and they are still being sold in the market.

They analysed 66 samples for formaldehyde, the natural form of formalin, and found adulteration in coriander, mango and fresh shrimps.

Antibiotics were detected in chicken and fish samples indicating feed contamination.

High microbial populations were found in several samples of pasteurised milk, indicating poor processing procedures by the manufacturer that can cause food poisoning and diarrhoea.

Samples of cucumber and street foods showed the same, suggesting widespread contamination in the water supply.

At least four samples of packaged juice contained benzoic acid “within safe limits”, though the labels claimed those contained no preservatives.

Senior National Advisor Prof Hossain said bacterial contaminations can cause food poisoning, diarrhoea, but those chemicals can cause kidney failure, liver damage and cancer.

“We are seeing kidney failure patients almost in every family in Bangladesh now, but we do not know the exact reason behind this sudden explosion. Chemicals in food can be the reason,” he said.

Citing an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) journal, he said they found the link of widespread cancer in Punjab to the 1960 green revolution when the use of pesticides was rampant.

But, according to 2011 journal, the then young people including farmers ‘are now suffering cancer’, he said.

He said pesticides were used in milk as preservatives and in vegetables it might be due to the use of these banned pesticides.

“It means there is absence of good agricultural practice and agri department people cannot educate the farmers,” he said.

The FAO Representative who is concerned about food safety in Bangladesh said one of his colleagues advised him to not eat apple in Bangladesh.

“If you buy apple it never go brown, it never decays because it’s full of formalin. In my assessment it’s unique in Bangladesh”.

He said those chemicals were really powerful old chemicals and should not be used anymore.

“The suspicion is either people use these banned chemicals or maybe the banned chemicals are still in the environment and coming through in the food anyway. It’s not clear to me which way it is,” he said.

Robson, however, appreciated passing of the new food safety law last October.

He said lead had been used in turmeric to make those look fresh and more attractive.

He, however, said the lab that tested those products has “state-of-the-art” facility to generate reliable food safety data and provide analytical services to public and private customers.

The European Union and Netherlands financed the laboratory built on FAO’s technical assistance.

A team of 15 scientists with British scientist John Ryder as Chief Technical Adviser and Indian scientist Sridhar Dharmapuri is running the laboratory.