KARACHI: The viral video in social media regarding mixing of plastic in various flour varieties has created anxiety among consumers but the flour millers and other stakeholders reject the impression, terming the videos fake.

People are seen discussing the issue with one another while some customers were seen arguing with the retailers on the issue.

General secretary of the Karachi Retailers Grocers Group (KRGG), Mohammad Farid Qureishi, said retailers are selling flour varieties by assuring customers to bring back the flour in case they find anything unsuitable for human consumption. “So far no customer has come up with any complain of plastic mixing in flour. Our flour sales are going normal,” he added.

He said social media should avoid creating panic among consumers without any investigation or any medical report that can prove mixing of plastic in flour.

Flour millers produce and market wheat flour, maida, bran and other wheat products but none of the products are certified by the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA). Flour bags especially also do not carry any production and expiry dates.

When contacted, spokesperson of PSQCA Rahmatullah Memon said wheat and flour are a provincial subject issue. He said the Sindh government is in a better position to talk on the issue. “Wheat and flour are not on the mandate of PSQCA,” he added.

A clinical dietician at Dow University of Health and Sciences and member of Pakistan Nutrition and Dietetic Society (PNDS), Badder Hina, said all wheat flour naturally contains two proteins: gluten and gliadin. Gluten contains elasticity which makes flour/chappati to expand. “All the videos floating on social media are fake because we are simply unable to chew plastic with food,” she said.

If plastic is mixed with wheat flour, it cannot be cohesive and would result in being unchewable. If the plastic lodges in the throat, the individual will experience pain when swallowing as well as in the chest. Maybe even choke or vomit as it is not digested by the stomach of the human body, she said. “There have been no reported cases thus far by any hospitals,” she said.

Central chairman Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), Chaudhry Ansar Jawed said wheat flour and other products marketed by PFMA members do not contain plastic or any such foreign materials.

He said flour is made from wheat which is a natural product made up of starch, protein and moisture. The functional type of protein present in wheat flour is termed as gluten which gives the dough the ability to extend to make chappatis, flatbreads, biscuits etc and elastic properties gives rise to a loaf of bread.

Ansar said if a person makes a dough ball and then gently washes it under water then the starch would become soluble and wash out leaving a gluten ball that is elastic and extendable. He added in the social media campaigns gluten left after washing away soluble parts is wrongly construed as plastic.

He ruled out any big negative impact on sales of flour varieties after the viral media campaign. However, he said one or two people rang up after few days but flour millers satisfied them.

He also said gluten is not found in maize and Bajra due to which consumers feel problem in stretching dough for making maize and bajra roties.

Former chairman of the Pakistan Plastic Manufacturers Association Ehtishamuddin said people are not realising that the rate of plastic hovers between Rs140-160 per kg while the rate of flour is Rs40-45 per kg. It means that mixing costly plastic in cheap flour varieties is not a profitable option and practically impossible, he added.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2018