Adulteration Drive in City
300 litres of fomalin-mixed milk seized
A mobile court dumped around 300 litres of fomalin-mixed milk seized from the milk wholesale market on Rathkhola Road in the capital’s Nababpur yesterday.
One was arrested in this connection and sentenced to six months in jail. The arrestee was Badsha Miah, a milk trader from Munshiganj.
The mobile court also fined him Tk 50,000. In default he will have to serve one month more in prison.
Magistrate Anwar Pasha led the anti-adulteration drive from Wednesday 9:30pm to yesterday 2:00am.
The court comprised a 15-member Rab team, Dhaka City Corporation Food Inspector Fayez Ahmed, Directorate of Environment Chemist Asad Hossain and BCSIR Chemist Abdullah.
Anwar told The Daily Star that acting on a tip off they conducted the drive on the milk wholesale market and found the presence of fomalin in milk after testing.
The magistrate said they noticed many big containers of milk but could not catch their owners except Badsha Miah.
Badsha said he brings milk from Munshiganj while other traders bring it from greater Faridpur and some adjoining districts to the wholesale market.
He said they bring milk at night and mix formalin to keep it fresh, as there is no system of preserving milk in the market.
The magistrate said owners of the sweet shops buy milk from this market and hawkers also do the same to supply milk to the city dwellers.
Anwar said earlier they raided the market several times at day but did not find the presence of formalin in the milk.
The adulterators do not mix fomalin with milk at day, Anwar added.
The court also saw that apart from fromaline water was mixed with milk.
It gave the shop owners some kits for testing formalin.
They said the kits are available at BCSIR at a minimal cost.
