The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection has found unripe bananas being treated with a banned chemical in a cowshed in Pabna, turning them yellow in just 24 hours before they were sent to market. About 12,000 treated bananas were destroyed in public with the help of local residents.
The directorate said the cowshed, at Rakhalgachhi in Maligachha union, was raided on Sunday (1 November) on a tip-off, in an operation led by Md Mahmud Hasan Roni, assistant director of its Pabna district office. The business was fined Tk 50,000 under the Consumer Rights Protection Act, 2009.
On the same day, 40 of the directorate's monitoring teams fined 72 businesses a total of Tk 763,000 in drives against market irregularities and fake or adulterated goods in Dhaka city and 27 districts. The offences included overcharging, not displaying price lists, cheating on weights and measures, selling expired products, and making and selling fake or adulterated food.
Traders were told not to create artificial shortages of essentials, hoard without reason or obstruct normal supply, and were warned to display up-to-date price lists where customers can see them, not to charge above set prices and to give correct weight. Food quality and hygiene in hotels and restaurants were also checked. Law enforcers, health inspectors, the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) and representatives of chambers of commerce took part.
The directorate urged consumers not to buy more than they need, and to check the price list, the maximum retail price (MRP) and the production and expiry dates before buying, to make sure of the weight and to keep a receipt. Anyone cheated or overcharged can complain to the hotline 16121.
The directorate said such drives will continue across the country to keep prices fair and supply normal and to step up work on safe food and against adulteration. For banana growers and wholesalers the message is plain: ripening unripe fruit with chemicals risks the loss of the whole consignment. The report is by a Banglanews24 senior correspondent.
Photo: Masumcity / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Banglanews24
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