You are what you eat | Feature

When it comes to buying fruits and vegetables, color, price and taste are what people care about. For most of us, the shinier and more colorful the better! But do we ever try to find out how they are grown or produced and packaged before ending up in our grocery bags? We eat to live but what if it is going the other way? Are we being slowly killed by what we eat?

Being a food technologist, I can't help being skeptical about any kind of food and the 'unhealthy' production process it probably underwent before showing up in front of me. Not so long ago, there was a public outcry when the media broke the news of food adulteration at many food/water production stores and restaurants which made people seriously question the food they eat for the first time. But that was it. There weren't further investigations carried out into it. Moreover the issues concerning the use of different hazardous chemicals in growing and ripening fruits and vegetables have been under the wraps forever. People are still not aware of the components that make up their food on the table. Though, in recent times, people are increasingly becoming concerned about what they eat, but still that is just like a drop of water in an ocean full of poisonous chemicals.

With the increase in population, there is increasing pressure on the agricultural sector to produce more food in less time to feed the growing number of hungry stomachs. To meet the escalating demand, most farmers are using harmful pesticides to the extent that they themselves cannot comprehend. Previous studies on pesticide residues have shown that a total of more than thousand different food commodities during 1995-2004 were found to have various pesticide residues. This is the reason why Nepal frequently faces quality and safety related problems in the export of honey, tea etc. to European countries due to the beyond-the- normal pesticide residue level. Lack of knowledge is one thing but many farmers and traders, who know their practices are unsafe, or even illegal, still continue to follow them and this is guided by a principle called 'the love of money'. According to the research carried out by Food Organization and Agriculture(FAO), many farmers admitted that they produce separate vegetables without the use of excessive chemicals only for their own consumption and they do not even feed pesticide used plant residues to their animals because they fear for their lives but shamelessly not for their fellow human beings.

The adverse health effects of pesticide misuse/residue are a global phenomenon causing more than 500,000 illnesses including food poisoning worldwide every year. Thus, they pose potential chronic health problem risks to all human beings that include the farmers and distributors themselves as they remain exposed to pesticides and pesticide residues on food for a long time. Food poisoning is the most common consequence of having food grown using hazardous chemicals. But in the long term, people might suffer diseases related to breathing problems, blurred vision and convulsion, cancer, tumors, birth defects, dysfunctional organs, nervous system damage, blood disorders.

Chemical pesticides were first introduced to this country in 1955, since there has been no looking back in terms of using it by farmers and distributors in excessive manner. Add to that, the extensive use of Calcium carbide in the artificial ripening of climacteric like banana, mango, tomato etc. has become widespread in the country, mainly due to the blind authority and limp laws of Nepal. This lethal powder might accelerate the ripening process but degrades the neurological system, affecting the eyes, skin, lungs, memory , causing vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, thirst, weakness and leads to prolonged hypoxia. So, just imagine people using sacks and sacks of calcium carbide to ripen fruits artificially without realizing that the heavy amount of that chemical's residue would still be present in the fruits. And now imagine us buying the same good-looking fruits at that time of the year when they wouldn't have been available during our grandparent's time.

Though the government has set the standard for Maximum Residual Limit (MRL) of these pesticides and other harmful compounds and also certifies organic food products, but they are least interested to monitor them. The equipments used for detection of these compounds are getting rusted at DFTQC begging to be used and that only adds to the tragedy of lack of food quality control in Nepal.

Until the Food Safety and Food Quality related bodies start vigorously rectifying this otherwise neglected great problem, we will be consuming less of food and more of chemicals. There should be strict enactment of laws to regulate the entry, establishment and spread of pesticides and its improper handling by farmers and distributors. Regular trainings /seminars about the use and safety measures of pesticide should be given to farmers, retailers and distributors. On our part, we should always opt for organic food and if possible try to grow vegetables and fruits in our own garden/backyard that will just require us to devote a few minutes every day because what you buy in a grocery can not be assured as being safe for consumption. Remember if those chemicals can kill pests, they can kill you too.

(Manisha Singh is a graduate in Food Technology and is currently working as quality control officer at Nepal Dairy Pvt. Limited.)