Vegetarianism Scientific And Spiritual Basis

Author(s): Jashwant B Mehta
Publisher: Jashwant B Mehta

Page 17

The danger of contamination A study of the non-vegetarian food items such as chickens and prawns available in Mumbai city reveal the abnormal risk factors for health. Here are the extracts from the news report appearing in the Indian Express, a leading English daily newspaper published from Mumbai, confirming this. “Mumbai's Chicken, Prawns Unsafe For Eating The white prawns were freshly plucked What newsline found from the sea. Professionally cut chicken . Bacteria 100-200 times in excess was weighed and wrapped at a clean, • Lead 2-24 times in excess not so smelly counter.
• Mercury 8-10 times in excess We assumed we had bought healthy, • Salmonella, E-coli, that should be safe food from Crawford Market.
absent. But over a week spent in petri dishes, the chicken and prawns failed to match their appetizing looks during lab tests at SNDT University. The tests are based on random, limited samples, but results indicate there are quality problems the authorities must address. Submitted to tests immediately after purchase, the prawns flunked shelling and washing-the shell absorbs most of the heavy metal from polluted marine waters. The good-looking chicken played foul, packing in a count of 1,49,00,000 bacteria-over 100 times the norm. Found laced with toxins and dangerous organisms, the chicken and prawns revealed lead content over 20 times above European standards. That's also uncomfortably close to the 2.5 mg/kg limit set by the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act (PFA)". According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest in the US, which has stringent food standards, 25 per cent of all chickens sold in the United States carries salmonella bacteria and, the CDC estimates, 70 percent to 90 percent of chickens contain the bacteria campy-lobacter (some strains of which are antibiotic-resistant), approximately 5 percent of cows carry the lethal strain of E.coli 0157:H7 (which causes virulent diseases and death), and 30 percent of pigs slaughtered each year for food are infected with toxoplasmosis (caused by parasites).