Red spinach contains heavy metals, more in lychee

Traces of an excessive amount of heavy metals and pesticides have been found in the vegetables and fruits produced in Bangladesh. Among the vegetables, maximum level of heavy metals has been found in red spinach. Meanwhile lychee among fruits contained the highest amount of pesticides. And district-wise, Narayanganj has produced the most number of vegetables containing heavy metals.

This came up in the results of two separate studies conducted by the Bangladesh Safe Food Authority (BSFA) on fruits and vegetables. Findings of the study were presented in an event held at the training centre of BFSA headquarters at Eskaton in the capital on Monday. The two studies have been done by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute (BARI) and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAO).

Senior scientific officer at BARI Mohammad Dalower Hossain Prodhan presented the results of the study conducted on fruits. His research basically focused on monitoring the amount of pesticide residues contained in fruits. The research was conducted on a total of 320 samples including 80 samples of mango, lychee, jujube and guava each. These samples were collected from Dhaka, Rajshahi, Pabna and Bogura.

In the study, pesticide residues were found in 39 fruit samples. This number consists about 13 per cent of the total samples. Of these, the highest amount of pesticide residue has been found in lychee (in 18.8 per cent of samples). Meanwhile, the lowest amount of pesticide residue has been found in mango (in 8.8 per cent of samples).

The team of researchers made recommendations about monitoring the production process of vegetables and fruits, emphasising good agricultural practices, training the farmers and raising public awareness.

Professor Shafiqul Islam and Mohammad Golam Kibria of Bangladesh Agriculture University conducted the study on the presence and levels of heavy metals in vegetables. In the study, nine types of vegetables were collected from six districts of Dhaka and Mymensingh divisions. The sample vegetables were potato, eggplant, okra, tomato, red spinach, pointed gourd, cabbage, cucumber and peas.

The study showed that there is high presence of several heavy metals including lead, chromium and cadmium in these vegetables. Of these vegetables, red spinach contains the most harmful amount of heavy metals.

The maximum permissible level of cadmium is 190 micrograms per kg. Whereas, 704.32 micrograms of this metal has been found in per kg of red spinach. Apart from that, 275.66 micrograms of cadmium was found in eggplant, 349 micrograms in okra and 195 micrograms in tomatoes.

The study found that heavy metals such as chromium are heavily present in vegetables like beans, cucumbers, okra, pointed gourd and red spinach. Meanwhile, heavy traces of heavy metals such as lead have been found in vegetables like eggplant, cabbage, beans, cucumber, okra, pointed gourd, tomato and red spinach.

The samples of vegetables collected from Narayanganj have been found to contain the highest amount of heavy metals. And the vegetable samples collected from Sherpur have been found to contain heavy metals like arsenic only. Researchers have said that eating vegetables containing heavy metals for an extended time has the risk of cancer.

Member of Bangladesh Safe Food Authority, Mohammad Mostafa presided over the event held to present the findings of those studies while chairman of BSFA Md Zakaria was present as the chief guest.

Member of BFSA Mohammad Soyeb presented the opening note at the event. Apart from that, professor Mohammad Ariful Islam of Sher-E-Bangla Agricultural University, director of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Shamshad Begum Quraishi and professor Iqbal Rauf of Dhaka University were the discussants there.