A cabinet decision has been taken to allow a higher amount of aflatoxin content in the nutritional supplement ‘Thriposha’, charged the FSP’s education secretary Pubudu Jayagoda.
Speaking to the media yesterday (26), he said a proposed amendment to the food act no. 26 of 1980 will permit a doubling of the aflatoxin content to 10 ppb in maize, a raw material in the manufacture of the supplement for small children, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
This traitorous decision will endanger their lives, said Jayagoda, noting that aflatoxin is highly toxic and damages the liver and causes cancer.
He questioned the motive behind changing a law that is more than 40 years old, and said it could be to allow business cronies of the government to import substandard maize to earn huge profits.
