In scary abandon

Adulteration remains a sore point with substances of every kind, ranging from harmful chemicals to non-food grade colours, being mixed up with so-called edibles. The point has been raised by the media on many occasions, but it has been ignored as frequently; otherwise, we wouldn't have had to put up with the business as usual.

People are ingesting stale and rotten foodstuffs at the restaurants, to say nothing of those being sold by roadside vendors. The recent arrest of a man associated with supplying dead fowls to city restaurants, should be an eye-opener to the DCC. It shows how little value is attached to human life in our context. It seems there is nobody in charge. We are already grappling with pollution of various kinds, and now comes the rotten food to deal a fatal blow to public health.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The DCC has inspection procedures which largely remain on paper, seldom being applied. A DCC official has stated that the existing laws do not provide the benchmark for measuring the quality of foods being supplied to or by restaurants to customers. But did we need a benchmark to discover the dead fowl? This is not to trifle with the fact though that the DCC needs setting criteria for safe food and ensure strict compliance with them. Frequent inspection of restaurants, particularly the kitchens which are mostly ill-kept and dirty should be part of the DCC's daily routine. Obviously, it must have the required manpower to do the job keeping in view the demanding standards of hygiene that need to be scrupulously maintained for the ever growing numbers of consumers.

We are what we eat; imagine what we must have missed out on nutrition had we not eaten some of the bad stuffs we did! DCC must be fully equipped and committed to be able to ensure safe food at the restaurants.