THE Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Food Safety Authority (KPFSA) recently inspected many ‘ice cream’ cone-making factories and confiscated borax decahydrate, which is also known as disodium tetraborate decahydrate.

The authority found borax being used as food additive for adhesion and preservation purposes in the cone-making process. This can cause potential health risks as borax is not permitted to be used in food products.

What harm borax in any food item can cause can be gauged from the fact that it is mainly used as household cleaner, laundry booster, insecticide, herbicide, fungicide, and in polishes, waxes, etc.

Moreover, it is proscribed as a food additive in the United States, the European Union, China, Canada, Indonesia and Thailand.

In EU, substances containing borax are required to be labelled with the warning ‘May damage fertility’. Also, the Indonesian directorate of consumer protection warns of the risk of liver cancer in children. Besides, borax also causes respiratory irritation, nausea and vomiting, and poses great health risk to pregnant women.

As it is being used in many cottage food industries, the authorities concerned should take stringent action against all those involved in using borax in food items.

Muhammad Zafar Mehsud
Peshawar

Published in Dawn, June 14th, 2021