As part of an into Australia’s food import practices, hidden camera footage reveals that SBS journalists were able to buy a large handful of betel nut quite easily from under the counter at a South Asian grocery store in Melbourne.
Watch below:
The seed of the areca palm fruit, betel nut is commonly chewed as a mouth freshener by many South Asians, where it is often known as paan, but it is also a known carcinogen, and there is a ban on its importation into Australia.
The Australian Drug Foundation "there is no safe level of drug use" for Betel Nut.
This calls into question the robustness of import protocols in Australia, if a prohibited substance can be imported for sale at retail outlets.
Betel Nut (an illegal substance in Australia) was easily purchased by SBS in a Melbourne grocery store Source: Betel Nut
