Lead them not into temptation...

Chetana Vaishnavi 

WHAT a shocking revelation! The milk of human kindness has gone sour! The WHO has cautioned the Government of India that at this rate 87 per cent of citizens would be suffering from serious diseases like cancer by 2025 if adulteration of milk and milk products is not checked. We had heard of the White Revolution in 1970 that changed India from a milk-deficient country into one of the world’s largest producers of milk. But when the daily production of milk in India is only 14 crore litre, how can 64 crore litre be sold daily? 

The Food Safety Bill was passed long back, but what are we eating? Poison! I remember as a child when we were permitted to heat milk received in bottles, we were allowed to lick the rich cream inside the aluminum foil as incentive. What a treat it was! Now, the very thought of consuming milk makes me throw up. Milk and its products are synthesised using harmful materials like urea, formalin, soap, mineral oil and acids which are a health hazard. Mineral oils can lead to paralysis and cancers and in pregnant women it might lead to abortion or brain damage to the foetus.

There is no dearth of food items that we consume which are a health hazard. Sugar is mixed with washing soda, chalk powder, white sand, plastic crystals and urea. Their consumption can lead to kidney stones and kidney failure. Butter and ice cream are prepared using cheap oils and even animal fats. Gram flour is mixed with flour from kesari dal, banned decades ago due to its paralysing toxic alkaloids. Metanil yellow, which can cause paralysis, is added to turmeric without the least scare of the law. 

In a vegetable market, you will find items of daily use which are artificially coloured. Bittergourd and lady’s fingers are dipped in copper sulphate to give them a green sheen whereas carrots are dipped in red colour water to make it more attractive. Tomatoes are preserved in formalin and ketchup  mixed with red dyes. Fruits like banana, mango, apricot and papaya are ripened using calcium carbide, a potential cancer promoter.  Apples are coated with wax and watermelons are injected with red colour!  

Adulteration weakens the immune system. The remedy is simple. Create as much public awareness as you can and stop buying any product that appears doubtful. When the demand ceases, the supply will also end. If you happen to buy a spurious product, report to the authorities concerned and see that the offender is punished.  For the offenders I pray, ‘Oh God, lead them not into temptation!’ And for the consumers I pray, ‘deliver them from this evil, amen!’