KARACHI: Adulterated foodstuffs flood city markets
By Nizamuddin Siddiqui
KARACHI, Jan 12: Spices containing wheat husk and harmful dyes. Teas having corn chaff and non-food grade dyes. Corn, sunflower and soybean oils containing a mixture of palm and cotton seed oils. Greed manifests itself in many forms.
Gutkas of many brands are sold openly in all the towns of Karachi despite bans and media campaigns. More than 80 unlicensed firms openly sell substandard edible oils and vanaspati ghee despite a fully fledged government organization charged with bringing these to book. Government apathy lets greed fuel adulteration, which is assuming serious proportions.
So serious is the problem that pure foodstuffs have simply gone out of the common man’s reach. Someone who earns less than, say, Rs5,000 simply can afford to buy neither the good quality local products nor the high quality imported brands. That’s why he buys unbranded or low quality stuffs which more often than not badly affect his health.
When he goes out to buy chilli powder, for instance, what he acquires instead is grain husk and textile dyes mixed with some chilli. In the name of pure milk, he is sold diluted milk of all kinds of animals, including goat.
When Mr Average seeks to buy sunflower oil what he pays for instead is sunflower oil mixed in palm or cotton seed oils. If he is health conscious and he decides to consume bottled water, what he buys is untreated subsoil water, pure and simple.
The problem is not limited to the unbranded or cheap products, a city government official told Dawn recently. Many of the famous firms also deal in products that are of dubious quality.
“Some of the top companies are also involved in this racket,” said Dr M. Laiq Ahmed of the District Government’s Office of Regulations and Quality Control. “Our experience shows that some well-known brands also contain impurities and additives.”
Similarly, the chief of the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority admitted that more than 80 unlicensed firms were selling edible oils and vanaspati ghees. When asked what his organization was planning to do against these companies, Dr Khaqan Hussain said some provincial committees would be formed which would take punitive actions with the help of the city government.
This is exactly what he told Dawn about two months ago. But because not much has been done in this regard since then, he was merely repeating what he had said earlier.
Dr Laiq Ahmed, on the other hand, did have some cheerful news. He told Dawn that he and his staff had seized thousands of kilos of substandard foodstuffs. What’s more, about 1,200 cases had been registered with the judicial magistrates against the offending organizations.
Showing Dawn around his godowns, situated near the Dawood College of Engineering and Technology, Dr Laiq said his staff had seized 27,000kg of substandard spices. Similarly 1,800 kg of chaat masalas, 1,236 litres of edible oils, 35,000 kg of vanaspati ghees, 1,800kg of teas, 10,000litres of bottled water, and 711kg of gutkas had been seized from various parts of the city because they were of substandard quality.
He, however, agreed that a lot still needs to be done. “Consistent monitoring over a reasonable length of time will start having any kind of impact. If we lower our guard soon things, which are now improving, will start deteriorating again,” he said.
His staff members, Mubarak Shah and Muhammad Iqbal, claimed a lot could be done if the people concerned were sincere.
