Street vendors told to shun plastic, thermocol for serving food items

Bhubaneswar: How safe are the flowers you buy for your loved ones? These cut flowers are sprayed with synthetic hormones to improve their shelf life and this can cause acute bronchitis, affecting lungs. The same goes for the plastic bowls and those made of thermocol. When subjected to heat they release a chemical which is carcinogenic and leads stomach cancer. These also causes intestinal inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome.
A workshop was recently organised the vending zone of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Chandrasekharpur, here dwelled on these issues and more. It was an attempt by India for Eco Food Campaign, a safe food project being implemented in the state capital by Living Farms, to apprise street vendors dealing with food items about the harmful effects of different products and things used by them and convince them to adopt a healthy way of life.
The workshop included sessions on link between diet and disease (food and water-borne), health consequences of regularly used poisonous items for serving food items, concept of ‘Jaibik Haat’ and its effects on urban consumer. The participants were shown videos on food adulteration and informed about FSSAI guidelines regarding street vendors. They were provided reference materials (list of banned pesticides, serving items and Pink Book) on banned items and its toxicity to the health and environment.
The workshop started with an introduction of the project and its objectives by Dr. Jagatbandhu Mohapatra, programme coordinator.
Abhishek Dwivedy, campaign coordinator, explained the nutritional absorption of food in our digestive system which affects the overall growth and immunity. He also gave a presentation on junk food and why it should be considered unhealthy.
They were asked to use leaf plates instead of plastic and thermocol while serving hot food items.
Dwivedy also described the concept of organic farming and its advantages. “People get headaches around flowers and simply assume they’re allergic to them. This might not necessarily be true. It could be that you’re having a reaction to the chemical residues on the flowers. Flower growers are actually among the heaviest users of agricultural chemicals%2