The Sunday Times (04/04/2021) - Even before the 16 billion buck sugar scam had melted on the public tongue, the spectre of a horrific health scare has now risen to envelop the people’s wellbeing in a toxic shroud.

The sugar scam had blown a gaping hole in the public coffers, skimming an estimated Rs. 16 billion from the Treasury vaults. The scam had been confirmed officially when the Finance Ministry report to Parliament last month blew the lid on what may become the financial fiddle of the decade, and exposed that, in spite of the Government slashing the duty on sugar imports by Rs. 50 to 25 cents, the people had not benefitted nor had the Government gained, incurring, instead, a massive loss of Rs. 16 billion.

But no credible explanation has been offered to clarify the amazing co-incidence in timing between the date of tax and release of sugar to the market that made rich pickings possible nor has an official investigation of possible insider dealings still been launched to hold accountable those who had siphoned off the missing sugar billions and padded their pockets with this flash flood of manna from heaven by diverting the tide for their personal unjust enrichment.

But while the mystery of the missing billions still continues to elude unravelment, a horrifying threat to the people’s health has arrived at the nation’s door step with worrying reports suggesting it might have spread to the interior and invaded the people’s kitchenettes.

On arrival at the port, customs suspected that the 184,000 kilo coconut consignment imported by four regular oil importers may have been contaminated with a cancer causing substance known as aflatoxins, a family of toxins produced by certain fungi found on agricultural crops abundant in warm and humid regions.

Two tests, one by the Health Ministry’s Food Safety Unit and the other by the Sri Lanka Standards Institute, confirmed the suspicions. SLSI Director General Dr. Siddhika Senaratne revealed that aflatoxin carcinogens found in the test samples were three times more than the set standard of 10 micrograms per kilogram.

The red flag was raised on March 23 by the All Ceylon Traditional Coconut Oil Producers’ Association during a press conference where they claimed that 13 containers of the contaminated coconut oil had furtively entered the market. ACTCOMA (All Ceylon Traditional Coconut Oil Manufacturers’ Association) Convener Buddhika de Silva also said Aflatoxin, a carcinogen, is especially prevalent in unrefined palm oil and substitute oils that have been imported.

But while a ministerial effort was made to refute the claim the oil had seeped into the market, stating the entire cargo was safe in Custom custody at Custom warehouses, the Custom Chief revealed that the oil consignment had been released to the importers’ own warehouses   since the Custom warehouses did not have the capacity to store all the imports to the country.

Now the detection and seizure on Tuesday of two oil bowsers in Dankotuwa and a further two on Thursday night near the Dambulla Economic Centre carrying 20,000 kilos of possibly contaminated coconut oil have put paid to government claims that the situation is well under control with the toxic oil safely under seal in importers’ own warehouses, and refuelled fears that the condemned oil may have entered and flooded the market nonetheless.

In the midst of conflicting ministerial and official reports, what the continuing drama has so far starkly revealed is the gross lack of safety standards: an iron clad system to guarantee that food unfit for human consumption is prevented entry to the local market.

Even whilst the masses ponder on the cheerless prospect of celebrating their Sinhala Aluth Anuruddha with kavun and kokis deep fried in toxic oil, it behoves the Government to order a comprehensive study to the existing procedures and mechanisms that presently regulate food imports and its release to the market; and rectify soonest the massive shortcomings and firmly close the yawning loopholes the present crisis has shockingly exposed.

Or else, in the manner the bond scam had shadowed the Yahapalana Government to an early grave; and the way the unsolved sugar swindle is destined to stalk the present regime for the rest of its mandated tenure, imperiling the nation’s health by allowing free rein for toxic cancer causing food to enter the unsuspecting masses’ market, will make the tolling bells knell the last dirge.

Read more at http://www.sundaytimes.lk/210404/columns/after-the-sugar-scam-now-toxic-hit-coconut-oil-scare-438862.html