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| Kathmandu, Monday August 11, 2003 Shrawan 26, 2060. |
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Consumer health
The recent report that the government is
conducting quality tests on two of the widely sold beverages in the country is to be
welcomed in as much as it will help clear the good names of international brands. The
decision of the government’s Food Technology and Quality Control Department followed
the findings of contamination in these two popular soft drinks in India where the sale of
these drinks in the parliament cafeteria has been discontinued. Two very important points
must be kept uppermost in everybody’s mind while conducting such tests.
One, the products sold to the common people
should not in any way have any adverse impact on the health of the people. Two, any tests
conducted must be fair to the producers of these internationally popular drinks. It is
stated that it will take at least a week for the final report on the drinks to come out.
But when it does, it should be a fair report favouring none and telling the truth as it
is. It is to be hoped that the government will make the report public so that either way
– contaminated or not contaminated - the people and consumers stand to benefit. And
this is the least the people expect their government to do.
But this is one department where our successive
governments have failed us miserably. They have failed to take step and make policies that
are people-oriented. No wonder the government is held in so little esteem by the people.
Just a few months ago, the same department that is now conducting the tests on the soft
drinks brought out an extensive report covering a large number of products, including over
a dozen brands of bottled drinking water. Even though there were adverse reports on a
large number of products, including bottled drinking water, the government seems to enjoy
sitting pretty with its hands tied and doing nothing. The products that carried adverse
remarks of the department because of their failure to meet the edible and drinkable tests
are openly sold in the market today.
It is difficult to understand why the government
is shy of taking necessary action and ban the sale of products that are hazardous to
public health. We never tire of the need for the government to accord top priority to
areas such as health and education. Yet the manner in which food products are sold in the
market, including untested raw meat, leads one to wonder whether the government and others
concerned are not merely paying lip service to tenets of good health rather than actually
trying to enforce measures backed by proper sanitation and environmental conditions to
make good public health a reality. This is why it is necessary to conduct food and drink
tests properly and impartially and when contamination is noticed, the sale of such
products must be restricted if not banned. This is the least the government can do. |
