'Govt to stop marketing of polished rice as per law'

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder on Monday said the government will no more allow the selling of "shined or polished" rice for the consumers as an act has already been formulated to stop marketing of such artificial rice.

"The government has enacted a law to stop the marketing of polished rice as the initiative will help to keep the nutritional value optimum of the staple food", he said.

The minister came up with this warning while distributing education scholarship cheques and corrugated iron sheets among the students and distressed families at Porsha Upazila Parishad auditorium here in the afternoon, BSS reports.
 
"As per the law, a maximum of two times threshing is permitted to convert rice from paddy", said the minister, adding "Too much threshing of rice ultimately causes a loss of its food value."

Even relatively less threshing also will save the wastage of nearly 16 to 18 tonnes of rice under the process of manufacturing polished rice.

The rice price and production cost also become higher due to the manufacturing of polished rice through excessive rice threshing, the minister explained.

Porsha Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Arif Adnan and other officials from different agencies also attended the function.

SR