According to WHO, one in ten people worldwide become victims of illness caused by contaminated or adulterated food. Two hundred diseases are caused by eating such food.
Everyone cannot afford to get clean, packed and nutritious food from supermarkets. Most people depend on ordinary shops, open markets, village markets, etc. In such places petty traders make huge profits by selling adulterated food items. Turmeric and chili powder is mixed with coloured dust, stone dust, mud, etc. The list is unending.
In India food inspectors inspecting shops and markets are a rare community. Fly-infested fish, meat and sweets are sold as agents of diseases. Doctors and medical shops flourish due to food contanination.
Neither the educated nor the common people question such illegal and unethical business practices.
There are complaints that food items supplied under the government’s subsidized or free food schemes are often unfit for human consumption. Some say, they are more of feed than food!
Educators have a great role in educating their students about the ill effects of food contamination and adulterated food and their ethical implications.