This week we broke the news that embalming chemicals are used to preserve imported chickens that are sold on the local market.
NewsDay Editorial
The side effects of the chemicals, if consumed by humans, include the development of cancerous ailments.
With such dangerous foods being consumed every day by thousands of Zimbabweans, it is not surprising that various types of cancers are on the rise in the country.
The sad irony is that those in government would be fully aware of harmful substances consumed by people through food and water, but they choose to turn a blind eye. Recently we carried out research on bottled water whose results were shocking.
More than three quarters of the brands on the local market were exposed for what they are — dangerous fakes not sanctioned by controlling authorities.
Of course, this being Zimbabwe, nothing was done about them, they are still seeing life on the local market. In fact, the number of such brands is increasing by the day. Nobody seems to care about the health consequences.
The media also revealed that condemned meat was for sale in Harare courtesy of a well-orchestrated scheme involving council officials and vendors. Council dump trucks were used to divert condemned meat destined for dumpsites to the local market in a scandal that should have seen heads roll.
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One does not need to be a medical expert to guess the health effects of eating condemned food. This being Zimbabwe, nothing was done to bring the culprits to book and we suspect the practice is still on.
It also came to the media’s (and inevitably to the public’s) attention that oil stolen from vandalised transformers found its way to various food outlets where it was used in the preparation of fast foods. Even after the matter came to light nothing serious was done about it.
As if these scandals were not enough, there was the donkey meat scandal where it was unearthed that burgers people consumed imagining that they contained beef in fact contained donkey meat. We don’t eat donkey meat in Zimbabwe, but unscrupulous businesspeople in cahoots with corrupt officials forced us to be donkey meat consumers.
GMOs are, according to law, banned in this country. But these are now found in almost every retail outlet that sells food in this country. It is not a secret that we are now a GMO — consuming nation contrary to what the law says.
The big questions then are: What else are we consuming unknowingly that is slowly killing us? How do volumes of such health-threatening foods pass through our borders when it is difficult for the common man to smuggle a pair of shoes into the country unnoticed?
The culprits are obviously senior government officials and corrupt politicians who should monitor what comes into the country and what we eat. Action should be taken now to protect the health of this country’s citizens.
