It’s public health, stupid!

Tuesday 6th April, 2021

Director General (DG) of the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI), Dr. Siddika Senaratne, is being raked over the coals for saying, in an interview with Hiru TV, that the toxic coconut oil racket should not have been made public, and refusing to name the contaminated food items in the market lest the companies concerned should be hurt. She has said these businesses might even collapse if named. Should the public be kept in the dark about the contaminated food they consume so that the interests of unscrupulous businesses can be safeguarded?

What was reported of the SLSI DG’s interview reminds us of a witty cartoon carried in a foreign publication some years ago; a precocious little boy approaches his father, and boldly declares his intention to pursue a career in crime, of all things. The old man, as cool as a cucumber, asks, without taking his eyes off the newspaper he is reading, “Government or the private sector?” Many a true word is said to be spoken in jest. Those who are responsible for the crime of making Sri Lankans swallow toxins in contaminated food items are found in both the government and the private sector!

Private traders can import contaminated food freely because most state officials collude with them and turn a blind eye to their rackets for obvious reasons. (There have been instances where heroin sent to the Government Analyst’s Department for testing was turned into kurakkan flour!) That said, it needs to be added that the Health Ministry officials deserve praise for having recently detected extremely high levels of aflatoxin in imported coconut oil and informing the public of their finding.

The errant companies whose products have been found to be contaminated or substandard must not be protected. We suggest that action be taken to make it mandatory for the SLSI and other such state outfits to inform the public of the products they test, the final results and the names of businesses concerned.

The Customs also refrain from naming racketeers they fine for smuggling. If these elements are named, the public will know them for what they really are. Why can’t the Customs name names if they are not benefiting from the largess of big-time racketeers who happen to get caught?

Meanwhile, the public has to concentrate on the big picture—the issue of toxins in food items besides coconut oil. Aflatoxin contamination is not limited to imported coconut oil, as a senior scientist points out in his article on this page today. He comprehensively dealt with the subject of food contamination in a previous column as well. The government ought to take his views on board.

Due to lax laws and lack of proper implementation thereof, this country is awash with harmful food additives that sell fast owing to their organoleptic properties; the fact that most of them are injurious to health, and some of them even carcinogenic is widely known, but the health authorities do precious little to protect the public.

Aflatoxin is not the only cause of edible oil contamination. Cooking oil must not be reused, as is public knowledge. But it is sold to restaurants after being used at big hotels, and thereafter it finds itself into wayside eateries, where it is liberally added to food, especially kottu roti and what passes for fried rice. This racket has gone uninvestigated.

Food get contaminated with toxins in numerous ways in this country. Hardly anything has been done to prevent the haphazard use of agrochemicals. A few years ago, it was revealed that textile dyes were substituted for food colouring in some food outlets in the city. Fizzy drinks contain high levels of sugar and harmful food colouring agents which are known to ruin kidneys. They must, in fact, be kept out of the reach of children. But neither the public nor the state institutions tasked with ensuring food safety seem to care.

Sri Lankans have earned notoriety for their soda-bottle reaction, as it were. When something bad crops up, they get agitated, let out howls of protest and even take to the streets, asking for action. But the issue fizzles out with the passage of time and the protesters shift their focus to something else.

One can only hope that the ongoing campaign to have an effective mechanism put in place to ensure overall food safety will not peter out, and the government will be kept under pressure to take action to prevent racketeers from making a killing at the expense of the public.