Staff Reporter :
Public health experts have called for ensuring access to vitamin A-fortified edible oil for the people in Bangladesh as it is very important for protecting public health.
They said the government has already formulated and implemented the Vitamin A Fortification in Edible Oil Act.
Marketing edible oil without fortifying Vitamin A is offensive acts as per the law, but, bulk edible oil marketed in drums fortifying of the vitamin is still found as an obstruction of ensuring the proper implementation of the law.
Reazul Haque, Deputy Director, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution; Ashek Mahfuz, portfolio lead for Large Scale Food Fortification and Value Chain, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition; Md Shafiqul Islam, business in-charge, Bangla Tribune, and ABM Zubair, executive director of PROGGA, were shared these views while talking with journalists over the issue.
Besides, as per a recent survey, conducted by the National Micronutrient vitamin A deficiency is a major threat to public health. One in every five children in the country was identified as vitamin A deficient. Apart from Bangladesh, the silent epidemic of vitamin A deficiency is prominent across many countries in Asia and Africa. Vitamin A deficiency causes night blindness, eye dryness and infection, damage to the cornea, stunted growth and more.
Public health experts said marketing edible oil without Vitamin A fortification is a punishable offence. They said that selling edible oil in packaging or containers made of harmful elements is also legally prohibited. They said loose oil sold in drums is severely unhealthy and is prone to adulteration.
Public health experts also said that bulk edible oil is distributed using drums that are manufactured with non-food-graded materials and are used for storing chemicals, lubricants or mobil or other chemical products which must harmful for public health.
On the other hand, these old drums do not contain any label or required information about their source, which compromises the traceability of the oil supplier and hampers the proper implementation of the law.
These kinds of unhealthy edible oil leaves people vulnerable to developing various noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), they said.
In addition, it was informed that the marketing of edible oil in drums should be stopped as per government directives.
Upon identifying the harmful effects of loose edible oil sold in drums, the Ministry of Industry issued an executive order to phase out bulk soybean oil sold in drums by July 2022 and bulk palm oil sold in drums by December 2022.
However, this order is yet to be effectively implemented.
The sale of bulk edible oil in drums must be phased out according to the government order.
To ensure that consumers can access safe edible oil (packaged complying with the proper standards), the Food Safety Act, the BSTI Ordinance, the Consumers’ Right Protection Act, the Packaged Food Labelling Act, etc should be effectively implemented with coordination between the government organizations.
The experts suggested that people must be made aware to avoid unhealthy loose edible oil.