We need to understand the basic issues underlying the contamination of food and other items that come into Goa. It is like the majority of the items that you get on railway platforms and which applies largely to food items that are on sale. This comment is more valid now than it was in the past. Nobody cares about the quality and hygiene of the food items because they know that rarely does the same passenger return to complain. That is why anything goes, meaning anything is sold. This principle applies a little differently in Goa where everything is oriented towards the tourist, be it Indian or foreign. Since the tourist is on holiday he does not mind paying a ‘little’ extra for any services that he uses or items that he buys or food that he consumes. Thus the price of everything is inflated. Larceny is a way of life in Goa and many a shopkeeper or store makes a virtue out of it. They take advantage of the fact that demand far outstrips supply justifying their penchant to make the extra rupee. It is explained away by saying – nobody minds. Now Goa does not produce enough of any items that it consumes like fish, milk or for that matter any commodity. Everything to a large part has to come from outside the State. Now the suppliers from the neighbouring States are no fools. They have the pulse on Goa’s markets. They know very well the ‘tourist syndrome’. With this they are confident that anything that they send to Goa will sell. Not only that they will get a good price for the item. So when it comes to trading with Goa in normal circumstances they may supply good stuff but when scarcity reigns and local demand is better, they will send the worst quality stuff to Goa. Given no choice the Goan market has to accept it. The local shopkeepers who have become used to the ‘tourist syndrome’ apply it with little or no compunction to their local customers also. The products to be bought are offered saying there is no alternative. What does the local Goan do, he either walks away or grudgingly buys whatever is available. In another context, you could say that the scarcity times that used to prevail during Portuguese rule where luxury goods were available in plenty but essential items were scarce has come back to haunt Goa in a new ‘avatar’. So having been used to make do with scarcity through generations the local Goan rarely complains and takes a stand. That is precisely what has happened to fish where the suppliers knew that in Goa anything goes, they started to supply fish laced with formalin. We must in fact thank and compliment the FDA for the first raid when the formalin issue was exposed, since obviously we were eating formalin laced fish all along. The blame cannot be exclusively ascribed to suppliers from outside the State since the wholesale trade in Goa was complicit and to a smaller extent the local fish suppliers also. When word gets around the entire supply chain would be keen to increase the shelf life of the perishable by using formalin to make that extra buck or not lose money. Business has its own logic and morals. That is why it is correct to take a firm stand and have testing labs so that Goans are assured of contamination free fish. In fact the present office bearers of the fish wholesaler’s association should be put behind bars on the count of deliberately and knowingly endangering public health in Goa if charges of manslaughter arising out of the use of dangerous chemicals in edible items cannot be brought against them. That is the only lesson that they will remember and as a consequence reform their ways.
Whether it be fish or whether it be fruits and vegetables or even milk, the same principle as enumerated above applies. There is a demand in Goa and the market is not insistent on quality and also willing to pay more so send gas-ripened fruits or vegetables laced with pesticides that they would not feed their cattle in the home State or supply milk that remains unrefrigerated in transit as well as after it reaches here through the night and until it is supplied to consumers in the morning. The consciousness raised since the fish in formalin issue is good but we need to remember that the neighbouring States could start squeezing supplies which may lead to scarcity and consequently rise in prices. Therefore unless Goa starts having a large part of its consumption of food items available locally it may lead to a major problem. The maxim to be followed is – Proceed with caution. Proceed with care.
