'Frozen food can play important role in developing safe eating habits'

Livestock and nutrition experts today in a programme said that frozen food meat and milk can play an important role in developing safe eating habits among consumers as those are processed and stored in accordance with proper hygiene rules. They said this while addressing the inauguration of a week-long campaign in capital's Mohammadpur Krishi Market area, BSS reports.

The campaign is being held to increase public awareness about eating frozen meat and milk.

The campaign, which started today, will continue until March 18 with the slogan 'Aware consumers, healthy families - priority for frozen milk and meat in safe food'. IRG Development Services Limited (IRG DSL), an independent and multidisciplinary consulting firm in Dhaka, organized this campaign at various places in the capital Dhaka with the support of the World Bank.

Frozen meat and milk are processed and stored in accordance with proper hygiene rules, experts said, adding that therefore, frozen meat and milk are pollution-free and safe.

Frozen food can play an important role in developing safe eating habits among consumers, preventing the spread of food-borne diseases and building a healthy generation, they said. Dhaka District Livestock Officer Basna Akhter said, "We have to come out of the mindset that frozen food is bad." "Frozen food is much safer than the meat we buy from the market," she added.

"If meat is kept in an open place for a long time, it can be contaminated with germs," she said. In frozen meat, germs cannot attack, she said, adding that frozen meat and milk are largely free of contamination.

She said that frozen items are popular as healthy foods in developed countries.

Eminent agricultural and livestock economist Professor Dr S M Fakhrul Islam said, "We need to break the common misconception. Many people think that the taste of food stored in the refrigerator decreases. This is wrong. Modern frozen preservation methods maintain the original taste and quality of food."