Toxic food

Muzaffargarh family of 17 falling deathly ill upon consuming suspicious food at lunch is flabbergasting

The case out of Muzaffargarh of a family of 17 falling deathly ill upon consuming suspicious food at lunch is flabbergasting. Eight out of the 17 members died due to the lethal effects the food had on their bodies, which surely brought deep grief to the family. As the surviving family members come to terms with the loss, our health department needs to catapult itself into a lengthy investigation to determine who is to blame in the case. Although this could be a potential murder case should the food have been tainted deliberately, the possibility of death due to noxious food quality is high. In the long term,however, officials need to establish stringent laws against low-grade foodstuffs that manufacturers produce and distributors and retailers proudly sell.

Quality control on food items, whether they are perishable or heavily processed, needs to be made a priority because it impacts the overall fitness of the nation. The overall fitness of the country is a significant aspect to the problem because our health care system can ill-afford preventable cases due to its ever-increasing load. Food quality and hygiene are also crucial because the foods humans eat have a massive impact on overall well-being, including learning, immunity, and staving off various diseases like diabetes and ADHD. Indeed, the health department needs to broaden its scope to implement regular checks on what becomes available in the market for people to consume. It is a shame that poor control results in people eating garbage food and landing up in hospital.

Finding expired food items at grocery stores or strands of hair in restaurant meals and owners responding with lackadaisical attitudes is commonplace. Fines for such disregard for human health and safety must be imposed on all responsible entities and if that does not work, the restaurant, store, and manufacturing operations should be shut down with licences confiscated.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2017.

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