Most of the food items like vegetables, fruits and greens are widely contaminated with chemicals like pesticides etc. These are very injurious to health. Junk food to which our youth are attracted is equally dangerous. Food safety is the theme of World Health Day this year. According to World Health Organization (WHO), over two million people — 1.5 million of them children — die each year in the world due to diarrhea from contaminated food and water. Out of the two million, nearly 700,000 die in South Asian countries alone. In 2013, about 10 per cent of the deaths in India of children below 5 years were due to diarrhea.
There is far less control on food poisoning in our State. There are large-scale complaints about food sold in railways and some restaurants in public places. Very seldom do we see the Food Control Department in action and framing cases against food contamination. It has adverse affect on the health of the people. The Government should galvanize the Food Control Department into action and they have to ensure that not all forms of eatables, like vegetables, fruits, milk, water and spices are adulterated. The farmers have to be trained in the use of pesticides and other injurious to health chemicals and sprays used by them to preserve agricultural products. As long as close supervision of food control agencies is not there, contamination of food items will continue. It is growing at enormous pace.
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