Biryani sold in Dhaka's backstreets is being coloured and flavoured with textile dye, kewra water and salt that tanneries have used on cowhides, Dinajpur TV reports, citing a recent investigation.
Kewra water is sold openly in Old Dhaka's spice market. Sellers say the sales have not stopped even though the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection has declared it unfit for food.
Food-grade colouring costs about Tk 1,500. Instead, biryani shops are buying textile dye at Tk 300 to 350, sold under the name kasturi rong. Sellers admitted that well-known biryani shops are among their customers.
Coarse salt is used in place of ordinary salt, and according to traders much of it comes from tanneries: salt used to preserve cowhides is shaken off, cleaned and sold. Packaged salt costs Tk 30 to 35 a kilogram; this salt sells for Tk 16. At a restaurant in Old Dhaka, burnt oil, kewra water and the coarse salt were found; one seller claimed the salt is used for washing fish, but a cook admitted it goes into the food.
Nutritionists warn that food containing such ingredients can harm health over time, children's most of all. One nutritionist said this coarse salt contains no iodine, and that iodine deficiency holds back children's mental development. Consumers buying cheap, tasty food are unknowingly exposed to these risks.
This report is based on a report by the Dinajpur TV desk.
Photo: ANKAN / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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