Sri Lankan food imports not tested for quality or subject to health safety standards
That Sri Lankans are vulnerable to sub-standard food items as there is no mechanism to check the quality of food sold, especially in loose form compared to the branded packaged form, specially items like rice, sugar, etc, emerged at a media briefing this week in Colombo.
These revelations came up during the media briefing by T.M.K.B. Tennekoon, Chairman, Lanka Sathosa Ltd held to explain the course of action they are going to take against a Facebook account that the state unit was selling Basmathi Rice made out of plastics,.
With regard to the Facebook report, he said that making rice from plastics is an impossible thing, and accused competitors, especially the large scale consumer marketers of a bogus report.
“This may be a conspiracy,” he noted. He said that the samples of this rice purported to have been purchased from their outlet would be sent to the Medical Research Institute (MRI) and depending on the MRI report they propose to complain to the CID and proceed with legal action to claim damages for damaging their goodwill.
With regard to the possibility of selling substandard food items undetected, some of the media personnel sharply questioned him. In answer to the queries of the media he said that they buy this rice from local wholesale dealers registered with them after their regular tender board approval. When the rice is purchased they would be checked with the available stocks in their stores, but he conceded that it would be difficulty to check items like rice and sugar.
When he was asked that as rice is a very integral part of the Sri Lankan palate whether only checking would suffice, without checking them from authoritative scientific lab, he said that it is not happening in Sri Lanka.
He said that all food items are checked by the Customs, but it was revealed that the Customs check only the quantity and the price. There appears to be no quality standard testing.
He conceded that they refer to MRI only when there is a complaint and said that the MRI would take around two weeks to send their report. Mr.
Mr.Tennekoon said that they have checked with the rice supplier and the supplier has indicated that such a thing would not have happened. He admitted that there is a risk in the process of testing.
He said that not only rice but there is a large number of imported consumer items and they are consumed by the people. Their quality and whether they are suitable for human consumption could only be cheeked on complaints when these suspected shops are raided. It is a common occurrence in the sale of medical items.
He said that everybody is aware that substandard palm oil is imported and mixed in the coconut oil and sold everywhere with no checking whether they are good for human consumption and he conceded that it is commonly happening. He noted: “Importkarapu palm oil sapuraa ahithakarai”. He said “Mahajanayaagen peminili aawoth pamanai wetaleem karanne” (without their knowledge there are many items that are imported and consumed by the people).
He also agreed that there should be more scientifically based research labs to check food items and admitted that there is no process to test the food items regularly. Everyone has to accept the situation in this regard, he admitted, saying that Sri Lanka is still a developing country and thus there could be various shortcomings.
Journalists then expressed concern that people were consuming food without knowing whether they are good or bad for consumption. In answer to a media query that the Lanka Sathosa sells consumer products while not checking the quality, he said one cannot say that. But when the consumer purchases items from the market there could be so many problems because there is no system to check their quality and said that not only this country, even some other developing countries would be facing the same problem.
He accused the media of creating sensation news among the public by inflating a small issue to a big one.