National Food Safety Day: Unsafe food a threat to unnourished generation

Reza Mahmud :

The National Food Safety Day 2025 will be observed on today (Sunday) amid the widespread flooding of unsafe foods in Bangladesh which lead the people towards infecting different diseases and created unnourished generation.

This year the theme is “Khaddo hok nirapod, sustho thakuk jonogon”. Although getting safe food is the right of the people, huge adulterated foods, harmful ingredients and the bulk edible oil marketed in drums has become a threat to public health.

The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) was established with the aim of ensuring safe food to the people in the country but the authority has not performed as per the desire.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has revealed its findings recently.

Besides, according to the Global Food Security Index 2022 by the UK-based Economist Impact, Bangladesh has ranked 71st out of 113 countries in terms of food quality and safety. This means Bangladesh’s food is less safe compared to its neighboring countries, Myanmar (65th) and India (67th).

The role of the BFSA is to ensure the safety of imported, exported, and domestically produced food through coordination and regulation of all relevant domestic and international institutions.

However, even after nine years of its establishment, the BFSA has not been able to achieve this objective. As a result, it has failed to play an effective role in providing safe food to the people of the country.

When contacted, Professor Dr. M. Muzaherul Huq, former Adviser of World Health Organisation, told The New Nation on Saturday, “Unsafe food is one of the main or most of the reasons of gastrointestinal diseases including diarrhoea, dysentry, amoebiasis, typhoid and many other diseases.”

He said, school children and many other people are fond of street foods not only in Bangladesh but most of the 3rd world countries.
The strict laws of food safety help prevent these conditions, he mentioned.

Children are fond of street foods particularly the school children & teenagers.

There are food safety laws in Bangladesh while there are sanitary inspectors to implement the laws. But the laws are not properly implemented. The adulterated & date expiry foods are commonly used in street foods, the expert said.

Experts said, unsafe oil could harm public health widely as oil is the most important food items widely used in almost every type of foods. Marketing edible oil without Vitamin ‘A’ fortification is a punishable offense according to the law.

However, most of the edible oils in the drum do not contain vitamin ‘A’ or moderate levels. The repeated use of plastic drums can lead to edible oil contamination.

Besides, bulk edible oil sold in drums has high chances of adulteration. The rampant sale of loose edible oil marketed in drums works as an impediment to the proper implementation of the 2013 Vitamin ‘A’ Fortification in Edible Oil Act.

According to National Micronutrient Survey 2011-12, 20.5 percent of children aged 06-59 months and 5.4 percent of women aged 15-49 years old (excluding pregnant or lactating) are suffering from Vitamin ‘A’ deficiency.

According to a study conducted by icddr,b in 2017, 65% of the total edible oil sold in Bangladesh is marketed in drums, of which, 59% does not contain Vitamin ‘A’ and 34% is poorly Vitamin ‘A’-fortified. Only 7% of the bulk oil sold in drums meets the standard as per the law. These drums do not contain any label or required information about the source, which compromises the traceability of the oil suppliers and makes it impossible to identify the perpetrators.

On the occasion of National Food Safety Day 2025, ABM Zubair, Executive Director of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress), a research and advocacy organization, said, “As edible oil is a food product, it is the responsibility of all concerned, including the government, to reach it safely to the consumer. Marketing of edible oil in drums should be stopped immediately and everyone should be made aware of its dangers.”