‘Educated consumers reduce sub-standard goods or services’

Our Correspondent Kohima, Nov. 17 (EMN): According to a consumer activist, speaking in the context of food safety and business practices, the actions and choices of a vigilant consumer contributes much to the reduction of issues and problems associated with sub-standard or defective goods, deficient services, and unfair business practices which citizens often suffer. People today want only money and do not care about other people’s health, said the president of the Nagaland Voluntary Consumer Organisation (NVCO) Kezhokhoto Savi, at a programme on food safety and security in Kohima. The programme was conducted on November 17 at the Union Baptist Church in Kohima. He was the resource person of the programme. Most consumers are ignorant of their rights, he said. “We do not know how much poison we are taking through our food every day. Toxic chemicals in fruits, vegetables, fish, meat and others seriously affect our lives and health,” he told participants at the programme. Consumer education has become very important to every individual because if the consumer is alert enough, adulteration of foods could be stopped. He advised the people to check the weight, read and understand the information on product during purchase. “Today the subject of consumer protection is of vital concern and importance for every citizen of the country because every citizen should be vigilant irrespective of the position one holds in making the consumer movement a truly mass movement,” he said. Savi said that a vigilant consumer can contribute in reducing the problem of sub-standard or defective goods, deficient services, adulteration, unfair trade practices and such issues problems to a large extent. Most consumers are ignorant of their rights, he said. “Wherever we go, we collect issues and we need your participation so that we can take forth the issues,” he said. Talking about the present good and services tax (GST), he said that initially even the leaders did not take it very serious. “That is why we accepted this GST and then we are paying today.” Further, Savi said that a lot of street food businesses are coming up in the recent times. Offering a caution, he said they ‘use the same cooking oil.’ Studies have revealed that reusing the same heated cooking oil repeatedly at high temperature alters the properties of the oil and makes it harmful. Further, wrapping sweets and meat in newspaper is harmful too because of the black carbon ink, he said. According to the NVCO leader, food-borne diseases may be caused as a result of consuming food which had been contaminated by toxic chemicals or by biological organisms. Likewise, some food-borne diseases may be self-limiting, while some can be very serious even to the extent of causing fatalities, he said. According to the World Health Organisation, every year an estimated 600 million people which is almost 1 in 10 people in the world, fall ill and 4,20,000 die after eating contaminated food, he said. ‘Ensuring food safety is becoming increasingly important in the context of our changing food habits, popularisation of mass catering establishments and globalization of our food supply,’ he said. The resource person also asked the authorities in concern to regularly conduct checks so that the foods citizens consume are safe. ‘We as the citizens of this town, it is our duty to take samples and go to the laboratory if we suspect that the food is not safe for consumption,’ he urged the gathering. Talking about food security, Savi said ‘We do not have a monetary price control union, which is lacking in our society.’ “The practice of fund raising is our society is spoiling the price,” he said adding that dignity of labour is not found any more ‘but we want free money.’ ‘We need to sacrifice. What we do is not only for you but for the society,’ the NVCO leader reminded. ‘In the future, we will continue to do this and we need a lot of people as a lighthouse in the society,’ he added.