The World And Fake Food

Tasty, delicious, mouthwatering, sweet, bitter, umami, I could really go on and on, just to describe a good meal. Food, a necessity to every human life, is now used to predict and assess people's status in some societies. Thus, taking a three square meal a day is seen ''flashy" in many underdeveloped countries. This raises  just twice will be described, poor or semi-poor. Food as with any culture gives its people a unique identity; Ewes for instance are known for their “Akple” and “Abobi tadi”. Chinese are also better known for the their noodles, thus making it an indispensable part of its people. Food according to the Encyclopedia Britannica is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. In essence, food is the fuel that drives the human body in everything it does. But from a more religious perspective particularly from the Christian viewpoint and you’ll be told “Man shall not live by bread [food] alone”. 

Food is mostly produced from plants and animals. Plants are cultivated and the parts used for food and medicinal purposes as well. Animals also directly and indirectly give us food. With the increasing human population, there is a general demand to increase production to be able to feed the ever increasing hungry mouths. And this need has created the food industry. Though there has been substantial surveillance on food production by the World Health Organization International Association for Food Protection, Food and Agriculture Organization, and International Food Information Council, there seem to be a menace fast growing which if not properly checked could erase half of the world’s population in the next ten years. This menace is the continuous production of Fake Food.

There is the need to realize that the fake food I talk about is not the plastic food replicas used for decoration and are made of plastic resins which are also not edible. The fake food I am talking about are those meals that are produced for human consumption with little or no natural ingredient.                         I woke up on Thursday to a WhatsApp message from a friend; rubber was being turned to rice for human production. Surprisingly it came with a video; being a confirmation of a sort. Another thing which got me worried was that this was being produced for human consumption.

The leading country in mass production of these lethal foods is China. The world’s largest economy, with the largest population is the leading country in fake food production. You’d want to ask yourself, why would they even do that? The reason is simple, with the increasing number of people; there is the need to increase production to feed the growing stomachs. And to think of the fact that they export food to other continents, it can be fairly understood. But is it justifiable?

In 2007, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng visited a family hit by tragedy as a result of tainted food in the Anhui Province of China. The Zhang family lost their daughter, Rong Rong, who died from being fed fake milk powder in 2004. More than 50 children died as a result of this. The Chinese government has tried to crack down on fake foods and drugs ever since. As an example, the food and drug Chief was arrested for taking bribes. He was sentenced to death in July 2007.

But despite these initiatives by the Chinese government to clump down on fake food, Al Jazeera’s Steve Chao again in August 2014 uncovered the continuous sale of counterfeit food. Prior to that, the BBC in May 2013 reported the high influx of fake food on the Chinese market.

Coming down to our very own country, we may not be large producers of fake food, but we make lots of foods unhealthy for consumption. The meats that are sold in our markets are burned with car tires before they are brought to the market. Another product which suffers this deadly canker is honey. The product is mostly mixed before arrival unto the market for consumption. What saddens me is the “pure” word that is used to describe the product. The biggest of these activities as it comes is the Palm Oil dilema. The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) on October 20^th announced that Ghanaians be weary on buying and using Palm Oil. The FDA in its statement said out of the 50 samples tested, 98% tested positive for Sudan IV dye.

Red Palm oil

With the situation as it stands now, it is difficult to determine whether what you eat is free from poisonous substance or is produced from a laboratory with little or no resemblance to the real product. As such, there is the need for Agencies like the FDA to tighten the surveillance on food produced and imported into the country. On the international scene, the WHO and other bodies like the Association for Food Protection to instill discipline on countries noted for the production of adulterated food, particularly China. On the other hand citizens can report foods that look suspicious to the FDA to ensure safety on our markets.

We can’t stop eating, but we can ensure that what we eat doesn’t kill us! 

by: Egbeta Mawuena Eric