5% rice wasted if polished: food minister

At least five tonnes of rice are wasted if 100 tonnes of the staple food grain are polished and it is the most nutritious part that is lost, said Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder.

The minister said a class of traders usually sell polished rice to the market after cutting the grain four times. But the process leaves the most nutritious parts of rice out.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the International Nutrition Olympiad-2022 at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in Dhaka today.

The Bangladesh Institute of ICT in Development (BIID) organised the two-day event in association with the food ministry.

"We should keep in mind that there are no nutrients in the shiny rice. If there is no nutrition in the rice, people will suffer from malnutrition. It will be painful for us," said Majumder.

He urged members of the Nutrition Club to come forward to raise awareness about the issue.

Food Secretary Md Ismiel Hossain chaired the programme.

Prof Md Shahidur Rashid Bhuiyan, vice-chancellor of the SAU; Zuena Aziz, principal coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals at the Prime Minister's Office; and Md Shahid Uddin Akbar, chief executive officer and founder of the BIID; also spoke at the event.