Regulations, awareness needed to check adulteration

LAHORE: Food or non-food adulteration is playing havoc with consumers’ health as well as the country’s economy and so it has to be checked through consumer awareness and prudent regulations.

There is certainly a solution to this problem if there is a will to do. The adulterators in Pakistan openly operate and the society remains silent spectator. The regulators seem uninterested to check the malpractices. Accountability of regulators is as much essential as the accountability of adulterators.

Adulterated lubricants impact the performance of vehicles. Consumer pays the full price for a lubricant but he is cheated on quality. With quality lubricant he would need overhaul after 200,000 kilometres, but with substandard lubricant his car might start emitting thick smoke after 75,000 kilometers. In the same way if petrol or diesel is adulterated with kerosene oil the performance and life of the car engine would suffer. This is the same type of slow poising that a human body suffers when the food items are adulterated with injurious substance to increase volume. It is a pity that the consumers pay the price for 100 percent pure product but are supplied with product that is 70-80 percent in performance.

It has been reported on numerous occasions that the furnace oil-based power plants in public sector lose their rated capacity very fast compared with similar power plants operated by private sector. There is no rocket science to find out the reason behind this difference in performance.

An audit report prepared for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) revealed that oil used in public sector power plants is mixed with water.

This has been going on for decades in Muzafarabad. The public sector plant was refurbished on the advice of USAID because the 350-megawatt plant was producing only 125MW of power. Yet, it was consuming furnace oil to produce 350MW. The plant in the private sector was found producing 350 MW with same quantity of furnace oil. The cost of public sector plant naturally was three times higher than its private counterpart.

Likewise, diammonium phosphate (DAP) is the most expensive fertiliser in Pakistan. It has since long been adulterated with plaster of paris.

The adulterators mix water in it and dye it exactly with same shade that of DAP granules. Finally, they would earn an additional Rs1,000/bag. Much has been written about food adulteration but the practice continues unabatedly across the country except in Punjab due to actions by the provincial food authority.

Food is a very delicate issue. Its purity should ensure better nutrition for consumers. Its adulteration injures health and is a tax on the pockets of the consumers. Mixing clean water in milk will dilute its ingredients and its health benefits vanish. Similarly, mixing red brick dust in powdered red chilies is highly injurious for consumers’ health.