Toxic poultry feed factory sealed in city:Daily Star

A mobile court yesterday jailed an employee of a fish and poultry feed factory in Hazaribagh for two years and fined him and his colleague Tk 2 lakh each for using toxic tannery waste. Members of elite Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) who were with the court sealed the factory. The mobile court led by Magistrate AHN Anwar Pasa also fined Saiful Islam Tk 2 lakh, in default of which he would have to ser
ve another three months in jail. The other employee, Zamal Miyan, was also fined Tk 2 lakh. The court said Saiful was running the factory, Hypo Feed, in absence of its sick owner and supervising the activities of the factory for quite a long time. The magistrate also said a sack of the fish and poultry feed each was collected from the factory and tested in the nutrition cell of Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council. The test reveals that the fish feed contains 4,971 PPM chromium, while the poultry feed contained 4,205.70 PPM though permissible level is below 30 PPM for both the feeds. The use of tannery waste in poultry and fish feed poses serious health risk for consumers as the hazardous waste has the possibility of directly entering the food chain. Experts say consumption of tannery waste through fish and poultry might cause liver and kidney diseases, even cancer. Advertisement A study in 2007 by Dhaka University and Bangladesh Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR) found higher rate of chromium in eggs and poultry meat than the tolerable level. Studies suggest that tannery waste contains a huge amount of chromium, which, if used in poultry or fish feed, would enter the food chain. People eating such fishes, chickens or eggs may be subjected to cancer or liver and kidney-related diseases. The manufacturers first boil the tannery waste, dry it in the sun, grind and then mix with other materials to make the feed for poultry and fish. Saiful, director of the factory, who was given the jail term, told the mobile court that he was running that illegal business for the last four years without informing the main owner. He said they first boiled tannery waste and dried in the sun and made meat bone, which he sold at Tk 17 per kg. Many feed manufacturers also manufactured their fish and poultry feed using the meat bones, he said, adding that he also made feed using the meat bones. Pasha said while the price of 100 kg quality feed is Tk 4,500, it is Tk 3,000 for that is mixed with the toxic tannery waste. He said they used the tannery waste meat bone as it helped fish and chicken grow up fast and size of egg also became larger. Pasha further said they also used the tannery waste as one of the ingredients of the feed named meat bone as using powder of dry fish imported from abroad was costly. An enquiry by The Daily Star in July 2010 found around 100 small traders in and around Hazaribagh who used raw tannery waste as ingredients and supplied those to some 20 feed factories across the country. The practice of using tannery waste for fish and poultry feed started around 14 years ago, as the price of imported protein for feed has gone up over the years.