Greed, Invasion of Chemicals, Unsafe Food and Unsavoury Effects in India

By Mithilesh Kumar Sinha | EMN

Greed is plain ugly, and sometimes if profit comes at the unfair or unjust expense of others, greed acts like a virus and infects profit to make it ugly. In the world, greed of human beings is leading to a plethora of problems for mankind. For greed of fast money, some of them are producing and selling adulterated products in open market and necessary commodities like groceries, fruits, vegetables and even sweets and confectionaries are adulterated and misbranded.

Cypermethrin, heptachlor, quinalphos, aldrin, chlorodane, dichlorvas, cypermethrin — these banned pesticides could well be a part of our regular diet. Okras, leafy green cabbages and other vegetables, bananas or oranges and apples that we so relish may be overloaded with some of these harmful pesticides. Harmful, dangerous, alien chemicals and non-foods are secretly invading our lives, as a culture of infectious greed grips much of our food chain: from farm to fork.

There is uncertainty about the health impacts of several chemicals and technologies introduced in a hurry to earn quick profit without proper verification of their potential hazards. According to Amit Khurana, programme manager for food safety and toxins at the Centre for Science and Environment, “Adulteration in our daily food items has been proved time and again. But this is not just another case. This is heavy metal, completely the next level.”

Nothing seems more wholesome than breaking an egg into a frying pan for breakfast. But do we wish to die of green diarrhoea from salmonella poisoning? Random sampling shows 5-7 per cent eggs across India are contaminated with the deadly bacteria. According to a research from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, most of these happen from inhumane conditions, overcrowded cages, saturation with excrement and waste streams. That’s not all, across India exists the widespread practice, though legally banned, of starving hens for profit. By depriving egg-laying hens of food for 14 days, poultry-owners can save expenses on feed and manipulate the egg-laying cycle. The suffering and drastic weight loss dramatically increases the risk of a hen laying salmonella-infected eggs. Some of the safety concerns are even higher in the case of non-vegetarian food. The heavy use of antibiotics in poultry feed has been a big concern in recent times

Consider bread: if we thought good bread lies at the heart of a blissful day, we should think again. The flour used to make your daily bread, roti, chapati or parantha is also bleached, contains as many as 25 different chemicals, including fumigants, apart from mud, dust, insects and fungus. The result? Liver problems to diabetes to damaged kidneys and nervous system. Surely, we can bite into fruits, for all the goodness of antioxidants, healthful nutrients and fibre? But there too unscrupulous traders can beat us at it.

According to a study by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Union agriculture ministry, from the vegetable basket, brinjal tops the chart with the level of banned pesticide at 860% above legal limits, followed by cauliflower and cabbage. Wheat and rice too had these dangerous chemicals. While the level of aldrin in wheat is 21,890 times more than the permissible level, that of chlorfenvinfos in rice was measured at 1,324% above the allowed limit. An apple a day needn’t always keep the doctor away. According to the survey, both apples and oranges were found to have banned pesticide level of 140% above permissible limits.

According to CSE researchers, largely unregulated pesticide use and management in India was one reason for food contamination, leading to long-term health effects, such as endocrine disruption, birth defects and cancer.

In 2016/17, the FSA and FSS were notified of and investigated 2,265 incidents. This is higher than in previous years, with 698 more incidents reported in 2016/17 than in 2013/14. Overall, the frequency of reported incidents has increased over the last nine years.

Government must take stern action to prevent adulteration of food and encourage organic farming. Society needs to make the people aware towards adulteration of food and food safety.