Need to aware people
Most of the diseases and illnesses we are faced with are a directly related to the food we consume. We all consume food to survive. In today’s world when everyone is hard pressed for time we have taken an easy route to get the food we consume by visiting food outlets or eateries so that we get the things of our choice and that too at our convenience.
However, while doing so we fail to ignore the rising trend of food adulteration. Food adulteration is not a new phenomenon in the Valley. Medical experts have been pointing to the fact that food adulteration is witnessing a phenomenal rise, which has led to a rise in patients with gastric problems and many other fatal diseases. Though food adulteration has been going on since centuries but the way this menace is turning ugly is a cause for concern.
Every food item which one consumes outside or even at his home has some element of adulteration. Be it milk, vegetables or any other item, adulteration has touched them all.
Surprisingly, in its first ever country-wide survey on milk adulteration conducted in year 2011, the Food Safety Standards Authority of India found that of the total 1,791 samples tested throughout the country, including Jammu and Kashmir, at least over 68 per cent i.e. 1,226 samples were either diluted with water or mixed with harmful detergents.
The survey though considered to be old now said that 83 percent of milk produced and consumed In Jammu and Kashmir is contaminated. Despite a government agency confirming the adulteration at such a massive scale, surprisingly, the topic met with a tepid response from the administrators and the situation continues like that.
Though experts have been warning since years that the consumption of contaminated milk could lead to multiple gastroenteritis problems, food poisoning, endocrinology disorders and several other chronic diseases. But no one is willing to seek or take action.
If milk is adulterated with water or some other commodity its health values can come down to a large extent, but the way other measures are resorted to, are concerning and need to be tackled.
Most of the dairy owners or those who breed cows for milk have resorted to the use of Oxytocin, an extremely harmful chemical. What has worsened the situation is that the ban on this and other harmful chemicals has been lifted by the government almost two years back which has added to the woes of the common man.
Oxytocin is a synthetic hormone which cow breeders use frequently to increase the milk output in cows. But the use of this synthetic hormone is detrimental to the health of human and especially the kids.
Another aspect of the food adulteration is the overuse and over dependence on food that we tend to consume in various eateries and other food outlets. The use of colouring and synthetic chemicals here is playing havoc with our lives with no system in place to check or even control the use of these synthetic chemicals.
Food adulteration is a menace, which all of us face regularly. Detection of adulteration in food is an essential requirement for ensuring safety of foods we consume. Although sophisticated lab techniques are accurate, precise and reliable, yet they are costly and time consuming. This gives those using these products enough time to escape the clutches of law.
KV Network
