More than two decades on, the government has been able to take the programme to the doorstep of some 20 percent farmers

In March last year, the government amended the import policy 2012-15 and put restrictions on the import, use and storage of formalin to check its widespread use in food items. 

Records suggest the practice of making poultry-fish feed out of Hazaribagh tannery waste has been going on for over a decade.

A new study finds that almost one-third of the pesticides used in farming vegetables and fruits in the country are substandard.

Many of the government officials working on food safety are corrupt, observed Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan, general secretary of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh.

Over 10 thousand samples of more than 50 different food items were tested at the Institute of Public Health in 2012-13.  About 60 percent of the samples were found adulterated or contaminated

The importers of ripening agents dupe the government by saying they are only importing the PGRs.  They get away with this, as the government has no mechanism in place to monitor what is being imported and marketed, said industry insiders.

Imported by the Department of Fisheries two years ago without any scientific assessment, the machine is mostly used for measuring formalin in the environment, said Barc.

The issue came to the fore in recent years after food adulteration reached alarming proportions.

The sheer indifference of successive governments in enforcing the law has given the offenders the freedom to make a market where profit takes priority over people's lives.

Mango traders in Chapainawabganj and Rajshahi use toxic chemicals to ripen the fruit. They also do so to get the produce out on the market sooner and to increase its shelf life.