Food Safety and Adulteration Practices in

Bangladesh
Professor Dr. Nazrul Islam
Pro-Vice Chancellor
Northern University Bangladesh
Email: nazrulku@gmail.com

Saying goes that the food is our best medicine. More than 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates
(400 B.C), an ancient Greek physician and founder of Western medicine said that “Let your food
be your medicine, and your medicine be your food”. At the ancient time, this Greek physician
understood the importance of food and diet for the human health and as a predictor of illness of
human being. But, even today we do not understand the importance of the food for keeping our
health sound and treating it as medicine.

The foods we take everyday could be a dangerous tincture, sawdust, industrial starch or
other contaminated foods that we are unable to trace (Noor, & Feroz, 2016). These foods are the
important sources of serious human diseases. Study shows that the foodstuffs that are
manufactured or processed in a developing country like Bangladesh are hardly safe for
consumption. This problem persists at every level of the food chain from preparation to
consumption level (Ali, 2013). Food manufacturers, processors, restaurants, fast food outlets,
street foods, etc. are somehow involved in these corrupt practices of adulteration which are
usually done by using various harmful chemicals and toxic artificial colors. Adulteration is the
action of doing something poorer in quality by adding another substance which is generally used
in the production of foods. Legally, adulteration means the food that does not meet the legal
standards (Islam, & Hoque, 2013). Along with other products, some adulterants used in meat and
meat products is water or ice and carcasses or canals of animals other than the animal destined.
On the other hand, rotten perishable foods are stored, sold and served to consumers in
unhygienic atmosphere in the restaurants and food stalls.

In Bangladesh, adulteration of food has become a general phenomenon that not only
ignores people's rights to safer food but also increases risk of their health conditions. Study
shows that more than fifty percent of the food consumed every day, such as milk, fish, baby food
in Bangladesh, is adulterated and poisonous. The unhygienic and unsafe treatment of food is a
serious threat for the public health by causing numerous chronic and non-chronic diseases.
Hence, food safety is a heavily discussed issue in Bangladesh that refers to the proper practice of
preparing and storing foods in order to avoid food borne illness of the people. Therefore, Food
Safety Guidelines (FSG) are crucial to ensure the health of the consumers which are concerned
with: (i) wash hands often (ii) sanitize surfaces (iii) wash fruits and vegetables (iv) avoid cross
contamination (v) prepare and store foods at safe temperatures and (vi) pay attention to food
recalls. There are different types of adulterants found in food and food products in Bangladesh
are:

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Intentional Adulterants: When a food product is intentionally contaminated by a person or
group of people external or internal to a food business. On a wide-scale, intentional
adulteration in food is damage on the safety of food supply which is concerned with starch,
pepper oil, indictable and other coloring dyes, etc. These are adulterated by sand, flakes of
marble, stone, clay, chalk dust, water, mineral oil and coal tar dyes. This adulteration causes
harmful effects on our body and health as well.

Metal Contamination: Metal contaminations are in the form of arsenic from pesticides, lead and
mercury effluent from the chemical industries, cans etc which are often mixed with food and
contaminated. The main threats to human health from heavy metals are associated with exposure
to lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. These are highly technical in nature and difficult to trace
by the general people (Hezbullah, Sultana, Chakraborty, & Patwary, 2016).

Adulterants in the Background: Accidental adulterants are the adulterants found in the form of
pesticide residues, can of rodent droppings, and food larvae. The formation of occasional
adulterants common with adulterants consists of pesticides, D.D.T and marathon residues present
in the plant products which are also very difficult to detect.

These malpractices are also proved in various research studies. Journal of Food Science
(JFS) reports that the olive oil, milk, honey, saffron, orange juice, coffee and apple juice are the
seven food ingredients most likely targeted by food adulteration with economic motivation. It is
obvious that foods such as, raw meat, milk and other similar food items must be refrigerated.
These foods will likely become contaminated with food borne illness or bacteria if they are not
kept cold. Hence, restaurants should take strong food safety precautions when it comes to the
refrigeration of perishable foods. To protect the health, general public must be aware of the
unsafe food products (Unnevehr, 2000). But, in Bangladesh people have lower level health
knowledge and the level of awareness is also very low. Hence, the effect of these contaminated
foods are causing diarrhea frequently and threatening the health and lives of the people. In the
long term, these toxic chemicals in food have also a negative effect on the vital organ of the
human body such as, the liver and kidneys. In recent years, patients with hepatic and renal
insufficiency in hospitals have increased substantially due to unsafe foodstuffs.

Although, there is no shortage of laws and regulations to curb food adulteration in

Bangladesh, such as the Bangladesh Standards Test Institute (BSTI) Order of 1985 and the 2005
Foodstuffs Ordinance, etc. but there is a serious gap in implementations of these laws. The poor
quality food, fake licenses, poor infrastructure, lack of hygiene, food adulteration, food
impurities, sale of expired products and incorrect information on food packages can come under
the application of these rules. Occasionally, law enforcement agencies become unexpectedly
active and implement mobile courts to penalize sellers or producers of contaminated food
products. However, these initiatives are not enough to protect the public health from these unsafe
foodstuffs in Bangladesh.

References
1. Ali, A. N. M. A. (2013). Food safety and public health issues in Bangladesh: a regulatory
concern. European food and feed law review, 31-40.

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2. Noor, R., & Feroz, F. (2016). Food safety in Bangladesh: A microbiological
perspective. Stamford Journal of Microbiology, 6(1), 1-6.
3. Islam, G. M. R., & Hoque, M. M. (2013). Food safety regulation in Bangladesh, chemical
hazard and some perception to overcome the dilemma. International Food Research
Journal, 20(1), 47.
4. Hezbullah, M., Sultana, S., Chakraborty, S. R., & Patwary, M. I. (2016). Heavy metal
contamination of food in a developing country like Bangladesh: An emerging threat to
food safety. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences, 8(1), 1-5.
5. Unnevehr, L. J. (2000). Food safety issues and fresh food product exports from
LDCs. Agricultural Economics, 23(3), 231-240.

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