TITLE:
A Comparative Study of Present Status of Marketing of Formalin Treated Fishes in Six Districts of Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Rafiad Islam, Shahin Mahmud, Abdul Aziz, Animesh Sarker, Marufa Nasreen
KEYWORDS:
Formalin, Fish, Dhaka, Protein
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.6 No.1,
January
13,
2015
ABSTRACT: The fish is an important
food stuff and source of protein all over the world. In Bangladesh, fisheries
sector contributes a lot, in the case of the earning foreign currency and
meeting domestic need of the animal proteins. To fulfill the domestic need of
protein and fish, Bangladesh imports fish and fish products from the
neighboring county. In many studies, it was proved that most of the imported
fishes are contaminated with formalin, which is the highly hazardous and carcinogenic
chemical. Information was collected from the fish retailers and consumers on
the marketing of the formalin treated fishes through survey using prescribed
questionnaire at 18 different fish markets in 6 different districts of
Bangladesh. It was found that most of the commercially imported fishes are
highly contaminated with formalin. On the other hand, local big fishes, such as
rui (Lobeo Rohita), catla (Catla catla) and mrigal (Cirrhinus cirrhosus)
etc., are also formalin contaminated partially, but not all the fishes. All the
local small fishes are free from the formalin contamination. In this study, it
was found that, among the 939 fish samples collected from the different fish
markets of the six districts, 213 fishes (22.68%) were directly contaminated
with formalin. The contamination rate is so much higher in the big city like
Dhaka (36.78%) and lower in the small town like Jamalpur districts (13.33%).
This study also indicated that, all the village markets were totally free from
the formalin contamination. As the fish traders used formalin to increase the
shelf life of the fishes, it was also observed that, the shelf life of the
local fishes or formalin free fishes was much higher and the organoleptic
characteristics were much more excellent than the formalin contaminated local
or imported fishes. The price of the imported fishes was also lower than the
local fishes. It was also clear that, the organoleptic characteristics of the
imported fishes and formalin contaminated fishes were greatly different than
the local fishes, which were not satisfactory to the consumers. The study also
indicated that, the overall hygienic practice and sanitary conditions of the
markets and the fish traders/retailers were very poor, not satisfactory. This
survey also revealed that, all the traders or retailers who were mixed formalin
with the fishes, knew about the bad effects of the formalin.