Kathmandu, Feb. 5: People have been cautioned against illnesses caused by adulterated food items in view of the increasing reports of various illnesses in the country due to the consumption of adulterated food items.

This was the main theme of the poster exhibition organised here Friday by the Community Empowerment and Promotion Centre and the Bio Inc. with the objective of informing the public about the adverse effects of food adulteration on public health and precaution measures.

The three hours long poster exhibition highlighted various aspects of food adulteration and its adverse impact on public health and demonstrations of making the oral rehydration solution, methods of testing food adulteration and samples of adulterated food items.

Similarly, various cut-outs of newspaper articles and write-ups on food adulteration were put on show at the exhibition.

According to the organisers, the main objective of the poster exhibition was to impart basic knowledge among the people on various types of food testing methods so that they would be able to test their own food themselves and to caution them against believing in glossy ads in view of more than 200 different illnesses that can result due to consumption of adulterated food.

It was disclosed on the occasion that not all the milk samples collected from different parts of the country were found to be of the required quality, some 2.7 million people in Nepal were  disabled, 45,000 children in the country died annually from gastroenteritis, nearly 60 per cent of the child mortality in Nepal was due to malnutrition and 59 percent of deformities and mental retardation among children was as a result of malnutrition.

Similarly, it was disclosed that 81 percent of the additives used in sweets and candy were harmful and that samples of only 91 food items out of the thousands of food items sold in the market were tested.

It was disclosed that some food items granted the ns certification mark were also found to be adulterated and only one food inspector was available for every 1 million population in the country.

The poster exhibition also attempted to spread the message that food adulteration was a grave social crime and should be checked from all sides at all costs.