Apon, Cocola, Ispahani food owners face arrest for adulteration

Arrest

Dhaka, Sept 24 - A Dhaka court dealing with food frauds issued arrest warrants on Wednesday against four people for adulterating foods, including one food item meant to be consumed by children.

The court of Nusrat Sahara Bithi issued the arrest warrants against the owners of Cocola Food Products Limited, Apon Good Food, and Ispahani Foods Limited.

“Arrest warrants were issued following the filing of cases on Wednesday,” said Kamrul Hasan, a food inspector at the Dhaka South City Corporation. 

He said that foods produced by the companies were found to be substandard in laboratory tests. 

The cases were filed under the Bangladesh Safe Food Act of 2013. 

The owner of Cocola Food Products Limited, Shukkur Mia, faces an arrest warrant for producing substandard wafer sticks intended for child consumption, which were marketed as Royal Wafer Chocolate Cream Wafer Sticks. 

The wafer stick tested almost twice acidic compared to the permitted limit. The sticks also contained the presence of insoluble ash in acid. 

Acidity could be indicative of a lack of freshness and compromised raw material integrity. Higher acidity could also signal bacterial presence in food. A higher presence of insoluble ash could also mean the presence of dirt or sand in the food.

Apon Good Food Limited proprietor Jahirul Islam Apon and his wife, Farzana Brishti, are facing arrest warrants for producing substandard tomato sauce. The acidity of the sauce was found to be less than the permitted level. 

The tomato sauce contained 1,045ppm benzoic acid, a preservative, far above the permitted level of 750ppm. 

Kamrul stated in the case statement that excessive presence of preservatives in food could lead to kidney diseases and cancer. 

Ispahani Foods Limited owner Mirza Salman Ispahani faces an arrest warrant for producing the powder drink marketed as Ispi mango instant powder drink. The powder drink contained .032 per cent ash insoluble in acid against the permitted level of .005 per cent. The presence of sulfide ash was found to be 3.09 per cent against the permissible limit of a maximum 2 per cent. 

The presence of excessive sulfide ash is an indication of adulteration and potential contamination with heavy metals or poor-quality ingredients, food experts say. - UNB