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PAS : KE ARAH PEMERINTAHAN ISLAM YANG ADIL
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Poisoned Foods
Fish embalmed with chemicals used on dead bodies
Human waste in cooked foods
Killer chemical in noodles and fishballs
CAP recently played food detective again and found
harmful chemicals and human waste to be still present
in foods sold today.
HAVE you had your poisons today? Yes, poisons. Because
that mee stall you patronise every morning may
unwittingly be selling death in the form of chemically
preserved noodles and fishballs.
That fresh-looking fish you're planning to cook for
dinner could have been literally embalmed with the
same substance used to preserve dead bodies!
And don't think you're safe by eating out, or by
grabbing a few quick bites on a sandwich. This, and
the curry or vegetable dishes you order are likely to
have countless bacteria entombed, or swimming, in
them.
Unbelievable, but true. Harmful chemicals which are
inedible -- some of which can even be fatal -- are
still very much present, and bacteria which can make
you sick are still very much alive and kicking, in
many raw and cooked foods sold today.
CAP recently played food detective again and found 2
dangerous preservatives -- boric acid and formaldehyde
-- and lots of filth from human/animal waste, lurking
in common foods like wet noodles, fishballs,
commercially prepared sandwich, and ready-to- eat
curry and vegetable dishes sold.
The foods were bought at random from various places --
a wet market, 2 foodstalls and a supermarket bakery in
Penang.
Boric acid, a deadly preservative which was implicated
in the death of 13 children in Perak in 1988, is not
permitted to be used in food at all under our food
laws.
Formaldehyde has been classified as a possible cancer-
causing agent by the World Health Organisation and has
no place in food at all. It is meant to preserve the
dead, not to kill the living.
As for human/animal waste bacteria, their presence in
food, especially in high amounts, indicates that the
food should be headed for the trash, not your stomach.
These "Terrible Threes" have been appearing and
reappearing under our stethoscope of scrutiny for many
years. Test after test conducted by CAP in the past
have found them to be present in food every time.
Yet, in spite of the many clarion calls sounded,
warning bells have apparently not rung at all in the
corridors of power. How else can one explain the
presence of these same poisons in foods sold today?
Are the authorities telling us that it's okay for the
public to continue to eat junk, that it's okay for our
food suppliers to continue with their dangerous
practice of adding illegal chemicals to food and
slipping poisons onto the consumer's plate?
The foods that we put into our mouth should by right
be inspected and protected by law. But the law appears
to be good on paper only. There does not seem to be
any enforcement of our food laws at all, if our
findings today are any indication.
As a result, irresponsible food sellers and
manufacturers can continue to gamble with people's
lives and get away with it. Is it any wonder than that
food poisoning cases are so common, that cancer is on
the rise, that food-related illnesses like the recent
cholera outbreak has reared its ugly head?
To say that the situation is atrocious would be an
understatement. For there's more than just a whiff of
poison in the air, there's a strong whiff of scandal
too.
Boric acid, formaldehyde and bacteria are by no means
the only contaminants which CAP has found to be
present in food. Over the years, our analyses have
unearthed a host of other toxic adulterants as well in
food.
Among the threats we have uncovered are cancer-causing
dyes (including banned dyes), saccharin (a potentially
cancerous artificial sweetener), aluminium (a toxic
heavy metal which has been linked to Alzheimer's
Disease, and which can cause bone and brain damage,
especially to children), and sulphur dioxide (a cloth
bleach which is obviously not meant to be eaten!) in
many types of foods, fruits, drinks and food products
sold.
Our test results speak volumes, and reality bites. Yet
every time, we highlight these findings, we are
accused of scare- mongering, of exaggerating and
sensationalising issues.
This has however, not deterred us from continuing to
highlight food safety issues for public interest, or
from alerting the authorities to the dirt in their
backyard.
As a social organisation however, our resources are
limited. We cannot be expected to be the ultimate
watchdog of public health, and we certainly cannot be
expected to play food detective forever.
This responsibility lies squarely on the authorities'
shoulder. CAP calls on the authorities to buck up and
start playing their role as the Guardian of Public
Health.
The authorities should carry out regular inspections
and tests on foods sold to ensure that the public is
not being poisoned with every meal.
More importantly, the law should be strictly enforced
to check the rot.
For the umpteenth time, we also call on the
authorities to set up a Central Food Clearance Agency
(something we have been calling for since 1975) to
analyse all food and food products before allowing
them to be sold.
Meanwhile, the question which will probably be on
everyone's mind now is: What other poisons are we
feeding on daily?
This may sound a bit cliched, but it's better to be
safe than sorry. To consumers, we have this warning :
Beware of the food you eat. For all you know, there
could still be many other unseen dangers in your food.
As this report shows.
Fish embalmed with chemical used on dead bodies
This is no fishy tale. The very stuff that morticians,
embalmers, pathologists and butterfly hunters use to
preserve corpses, aborted babies and butterfly
specimens is also being used to make your fish look
fresh!
The chemical is formaldehyde.
The embalmed fish (now you know why they glow with
health!) are: tuna, cencaru, kembong, bawal putih,
sardin, ikan merah, senangin and pelata.
The casualty is you (not the fish).
Makes your blood run cold, doesn't it?
These findings came to light in our recent test on
formaldehyde in fish. In our test, 9 samples of the
above fish were found to have formaldehyde of up to
26.13 ppm (parts per million).
Fish is not the only seafood which has been given a
makeover job. We also detected formaldehyde in a
sample each of sotong and prawns tested.
Formaldehyde, a chemical which is commonly used to
preserve dead bodies, has been classified as a
cancer-causing agent by the World Health Organisation.
It is forbidden to be used in food under the law (for
obvious reasons).
This chemical, when ingested in large quantities, may
also have corrosive effects (depending on the
concentration) and may cause abdominal pain, nausea,
vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions and coma.
This is the second time that CAP has found
formaldehyde to be present in seafood.
In 1994, we tested and found 30 samples of fish,
prawns and sotong to have very high levels of
formaldehyde.
After we raised the alarm, the Penang State Health
Department conducted its own test and found 1 sample
of fish to be similarly contaminated.
Now, barely 2 years later, this deadly stuff is still
present in seafood sold!
Although the results of our test this time have
greatly improved, the fact remains that consumers are
still not completely free of this threat.
Have our authorities been sleeping, or are they
telling us that it's okay to have repeated doses of
formaldehyde with our fish?
Killer chemical in noodles and fishballs
It's a recipe for death. They've been caught doing it
since 1988 (though it may have started even earlier)
and they're still doing it today -- adding boric acid,
a chemical preservative which can kill, to food.
Less than a teaspoonful is enough to kill a child.
That is why our food laws do not allow it to be used
in food at all.
This is the same chemical that was implicated in the
death of 13 children in Perak in 1988.
And this very poison still lurks in foods sold today.
Our latest test found boric acid to be present in 3
samples of food anlaysed:
Yellow noodles -- 167.07 ppm;
Bak chang (Chinese glutinous rice dumpling wrapped in
bamboo leaves) -- 128.67 ppm; and
Fishballs (1.08 ppm).
Again, history is repeating itself.
Surveys done by CAP as far back as 1984 have shown
this chemical to be popularly used to hide the
staleness, and preserve the freshness of fish, prawns
and meat.
Our tests from 1985-1992 have also conclusively shown
that most wet noodles, seafood, fishballs and nyonya
kuih sold at the time contained this killer
preservative.
The authorities were duly alerted, but apparently
apathy still reigns because today, nothing has
changed.
Boric acid (a chemical so toxic that it can cause
birth defects, kidney damage, as well as stomach pain
and food poisoning) is still "sanctioned" for use in
food today even though the law does not permit this.
Where is the enforcement? Must there be a tragedy
before the authorities act?
Delicious curry, vegetables & egg sandwich D plus
human waste!
If you take any of the above foods while eating out
and have to do a lot of squatting later, don't be
surprised. Chances are, the food has a generous
helping of human or animal waste in it!
Yes, whether you sit down for a meal in your own home
or outside, you will still be eating poisoned foods.
In our latest follow-up test on bacteriological
contamination of food, various types of curry and a
vegetable dish bought from 2 different foodstalls were
found to have been contaminated with E Coli, bacteria
from human or animal waste.
The contaminated samples were: beef curry, chicken
curry, kari kerang, and fried vegetables.
E Coli is not supposed to be present in food at all.
Besides E Coli, we also found high Coliform counts in
4 samples of food tested: liver curry, beef curry, the
fried vegetables, and egg sandwich.
(Coliform is bacteria derived from stomach sources in
general.)
The samples were found to have Coliform of up to
almost 2 1/2 times above the American Public Health
Association's safety standard of 100 per gram.
That's not all. A sample of fish curry and the same
vegetable dish were also found to have high total
bacteria counts of up to 6 times the American safety
standard.
These cooked foods are badly contaminated and are
unfit for consumption. One can get food poisoning from
eating them. Why are they still allowed to be sold?
This situation seems to have prevailed since 1994 --
our tests at that time found 74% of foods tested to be
similarly contaminated. Among them were popular hawker
food like chicken and pork rice, nasi kandar, pasembor
and satay.
Today, consumers are still exposed to the same risks.
Have we become so used to the phenomenon of
contaminated food that we close an eye to the problem
and hope for the situation to correct itself?
Or are our authorities once again telling us that it's
okay to eat contaminated food?
Other hidden dangers in your food
Our expose on the "Terrible Threes" this time is just
the tip of the iceberg. There could be many other
hidden dangers in our food that we may not be aware
of.
Here's a quick glance at our other findings on food
over the past 10 years:
1986 -- 2 cancer-causing dyes, Sunset Yellow and
Tartrazine, were detected in orange squash and
cordials sold.
1987 -- We found 5 toxic dyes in 9 soft drinks and
syrups tested.
1989 -- 10 brands of infant formula were found to have
aluminium (which can cause bone and brain damage) up
to 14 times above the level that is permitted in
drinking water.
1990 -- We found Diphenyl, a fungicide which is banned
in Malaysia, on grapes, starfruits, pears, plums,
apples and oranges sold.
In the same year, we also found aluminium in instant
drinks and local coffee powder.
1992 -- A wide assortment of cold drinks, cut fruits
and toddy sold were found to illegally contain
saccharin, a cancer- causing substance that is 300
times sweeter than sugar.
1993 -- 7 toxic dyes which may cause cancer, liver
damage, birth deformities, stillbirths, and sterility
in men, were detected in curries and curry
ingredients, belacan, salted fish, and dried prawns.
Three of the dyes are banned colouring matter.
In the same year, we also found high levels of
bacteria in ice- creams sold; 12 samples were found to
contain E Coli. O 1994 -- 7 samples of tea dust were
found to have harmful dyes, two of which can cause
cancer.
That same year, we tested and found sulphur dioxide (a
cloth bleach!) and formaldehyde in imported longans
sold here. Both chemicals can cause cancer, blood
disorders and allergic reactions, even death, in some
people.
Are the above foods still safe to eat today? Or is it
still a poisoned food haven out there?
Will we live to see the day when foods sold can be
eaten without fear, when food offences will be a thing
of the past, when vigilant food monitoring rules the
day?
These are questions only the authorities can answer,
that is if they have been doing their job of enforcing
the law in the first place.
But going by the above statistics alone, the burning
question now must surely be: What else is safe to eat?
-- Utusan Konsumer June 1996
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