Take-aways take away your health

Octogenarian

A recent news report said steps are being taken by the Health Ministry under the Food Act No. 86 of 1980 to curb misleading television advertisements that would seemingly look to be promoting food harmful to health.

One does not know how the authorities would identify and separate the grain from the chaff, but it is appallingly clear that dubious food manufacturers and their agents have been given the license to market sub-standard food at immense profit to themselves and at the same time ruin the nation's health.

To single out advertisements alone is hardly sufficient to ensure the safety of food products up for sale. The quality of food sold at food outlets should hold the attention of the health authorities as well. Food outlets have mushroomed in all parts of the country and they too seem to be making immense profits and what is sold as instant food or takeaways is turned out mostly from leftovers recycled over and over again. Even the condition under which the food is prepared in an environment called the kitchen would hardly merit a cleanliness ticket in most instances.

The eating habits of Sri Lankans have changed dramatically over the years and more and more have become addicted to takeaways. They should be made aware of the quality of food they consume. Tempting and tantalizing advertisements or mouth watering aromas wafting out from food outlets should not be their guide to the choice of food. It was bemusing to have read a newspaper article devoted to giving tips on how to save money on grocery bills.

It advocated eating out as frequently as one may. What it meant was to eat recycled food and save money and take time from the hassle of cooking ones own food.

Why cant someone give tips on how to prepare a wholesome hygienic home-cooked meal never mind losing money on groceries. The nearest to a home-cooked meal are tips given by those culinary experts demonstrating on television how to peal an onion, boil a potato or slice a tomato. At the end of it all one could but hardly sigh for those cookies of yore that would turn out a delicious and hygienic meal in smoke filled kitchens and sate once appetite for the rest of the day.

People don't go out to eat in five star hotels. They patronize the food outlets and the many parked vehicles outside these outlets of an evening and those crowding the many food stalls is all about saving money on grocery bills. The consequences to health is of no concern and the money so saved on groceries would also at some future date go to pay medical bills.

What we should be asking is why the Food Act passed over twenty years ago was allowed to lie dormant while the health of the nation was been gradually ruined. It is the apathy of those tasked with the implementation of laws and bylaws that has made these laws look obsolete to encourage food manufacturers and suppliers to sell substandard food with impunity. Perhaps if the local health authorities show more vigilance in areas coming under their purview it would help prevent unhygienic food being sold. Sadly it is happening all the time with hardly any checks and balances and people of all ages are eating their way into health problems with takeaways.

Television advertisements can be devastatingly misleading with exotic presentation that would seemingly be tempting for viewers to resist purchasing a product. And there are so many products like for instance, the herbals, packeted brands of snacks, beverages, baby products and milk food. The choice of purchase is wide ranging but how many of these products would pass muster under Act No.86 of 1980. A Grocer told me whenever a new brand of beverage is advertised on Television he has housewives and children crowding his grocery in the morning asking for the beverage even before it had been released to the market.

The power of TV advertising has reduced our people to naivety to believe what they saw advertised in the night is good enough for their consumption in the morning. With this kind of mindset will Law No.86 of 1980 be of any use in the 21st Century.