Poison in the food chain

[Coss]

The European Union is not the only community to express concern over Thailand's contamination of food through the overuse of toxic pesticides. Food safety and hygiene have also become issues at home and the net is closing on those who sell contaminated meat, vegetables and substandard fruit. Consumers are more health-conscious nowadays and have rightly served notice that they expect high standards of cleanliness to be maintained.

 

This was illustrated by Public Health Minister Jurin Laksanavisit on Wednesday, when he took offending vendors to task for excessively recycling cooking oil. He warned that using the same oil more than twice, even if filtered, could create serious health risks, of which there are currently no shortage. The US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta links over 200 illnesses to food poisoning, many of them life-threatening.

 

In general, though, the outcry over the use of toxic pesticides has taken some of the heat off the much-maligned street vendors, who have been shown to be not the only ones responsible if contaminated food is found at their stalls. But that does not absolve them completely because there are other contaminants, some caused by a lack of basic food hygiene. If that is the case, they will get the blame.

 

Vendors are supposed to be registered, but not all are, and to maintain high standards of food safety. To their credit, a great many do because their business relies on repeat custom; roadside diners who have been made ill are not likely to return. Fresh food markets and street vendors are an integral part of city life and our culture but fight a daily battle against dirt, dust, vehicle fumes, flies and other pollutants. They are also the target of justified complaints from pedestrians who are forced to walk around them in the roadway because their street stalls are blocking the pavements.

 

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and its municipal inspectors have long had a love-hate relationship with vendors and there have been constant threats to clear them from the streets because of the nuisance factor. That would be a sad day because street vendors perform an important public service and also help to keep inflation in check. They are part of what makes Bangkok unique.

 

Incentive programmes and stiff fines already exist for non-compliance with sanitary regulations, but there is still room for improvement. [color:red]For a start there must be full enforcement of the ban on the use of borax to redden meat and colouring chemicals to improve the appearance of fruit.[/color] More frequent health inspections are necessary to check on levels of coliform bacteria and to ensure that noodles are fit for consumption and do not contain an excess of fungal aflatoxins.

 

First, though, priority must be given to regulation of pesticides to preserve both our health and vegetable export markets. [color:red]The backlash from the EU should not come as a surprise to the Agriculture and Cooperatives Ministry, which two years ago was trying to prevent farmers from using traditional herbs as ``natural'' pesticides, by nonsensically declaring them to be dangerous substances. The ministry is surely aware of the survey last year by four universities and the Foundation for Consumers which provided evidence of the extent of contamination taking place. And that while the 42,089 tonnes of pesticides imported in 1997 were then considered sufficient, for some reason it became necessary to import 137,594 tonnes in 2009.[/color]

 

Received wisdom has it that we are what we eat. In light of this month's revelations about hazardous chemicals in the food chain, that is an alarming thought.

 

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