We all might have heard a well-known phrase – ‘hoist with one’s own petard’, but fewer is the number of those who have realised its true meaning. Moreover, the bitter irony is that we often caution others saying “if you dig hole for others, you will fall into it” but we forget what we suggest others. Food adulteration is obviously such a problem that reminds us of the phrase.

As human beings we all – both consumers and food producers — have to eat food to live on. Men have to depend on each other as none can produce all items. A fruit grower has to buy fish from fishermen, and vice versa. So a trader is also a consumer. Here lies the bitter irony. Almost all the food items we consume are adulterated in some way or the other. So no one is spared from the curse of food adulteration. When a fish monger dips fish into formalin, he forgets that he is also buying tainted food items from others. So everyone is falling victim to food adulteration. All — from a poor man to a rich man — are swallowing poison while consuming foods, thus being hoist with their own petard. We are fully aware of this but cannot or do not take the trouble to do anything to stop the malpractice. Rather it seems that food adulteration is an open secret and we have accepted it as a common phenomenon.

Many become overjoyed to hear that some markets have been declared formalin free, but we cannot but worry over such news. One may think that it is a positive sign that some markets are being made formalin-free. But declaring some markets formalin-free, we are recognising that food adulteration can exist in our country. We are indirectly giving licence to greedy traders for adulterating food items. But we should continue fighting such malpractice in our society as consuming tainted foods the entire nation is becoming physically weak and vulnerable to diseases and the increase in the number of patients visiting hospitals bears the testimony to the fact. We want all markets to become formalin-free; we want an end to all sorts of food adulteration.

Now the question comes – who will bell the cat and how? As we are the sufferers, so no doubt we all have to come forward along with the government to eradicate food adulteration from our country. There no denying that the government is making efforts to stop the malpractice but it has not done enough to control adulteration of food products. There are laws in the country to prosecute the guilty, but the people are not aware of the laws whereas many are flouting the laws because they often go unpunished.

However, the news of approving the draft of ‘Safe Food Act-2013’ in the cabinet is a splash of hope for the people who have become hopeless about respite from the all pervasive food adulteration. The draft proposes provision of maximum jail term of seven years and the penalty will double if the offence is repeated. The bill proposes punitive action against offenders through mobile courts for minor offences while harsher punishment through regular criminal courts for major offences.

Now the question arises – why is food adulteration so rampant despite strict laws and mobile court drives to stop the malpractice? Food adulteration is still ubiquitous because laws are not enforced properly and often the real culprits are not brought to book. We see that anti-adulteration drives are conducted in different markets of the capital and punishment is meted out to some retailers for food tainting. But in most cases retailers are not involved in tainting food items. Rather most of the food items are adulterated by wholesalers who often remain behind the curtain and go unpunished. So the real culprits have to be brought to book.

As food adulteration is prevalent in every nook and cranny, anti-adulteration drives have to be conducted nationwide. And it is surely a gigantic task and will require huge manpower. So the government can mull over establishing a separate department with sufficient manpower to address the problem of food adulteration. We hope proper enforcement of laws and strong monitoring of markets will be instrumental in rooting out food adulteration.

The writer works at the editorial

department of daily sun.