Food adulteration a cancer, says govt
New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday called food adulteration a
“cancer” and put the onus of fighting the menace on states as the
issue rocked Lok Sabha amid concerns expressed by members across
party lines.
Minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi said the states
needed to tighten their enforcement machinery to check adulteration
and strive for speedy trials to deter unscrupulous elements.
He said the implementation of prevention of food adulteration
law was in the domain of states.
The reply came after Congress MP Jagdambika Pal said not just
packaged food but also vegetables, fruits and milk were falling prey
to profiteers. He said the low statistics provided by the health
minister notwithstanding, the illegal business was rampant. He said
oxytocin injections were being used to make vegetables grow bigger
while calcium carbide was being used indiscriminately to make fruits
appear attractive. He said these had arsenic and phosphorus which
acted as “sweet poison” for the human body.
These Chemicals Can Cause Abnormalities, Kidney
Failure, Brain Damage
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