The government will carry out tough action against the people who are being involved with adulterate food business across the country to ensure safe food for the people within couple of years.
Food Minister Advocate Qamrul Islam said this as the chief guest while he was addressing a roundtable on “Toxic free street food during the holy Ramadan” arranged by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) at its conference room here yesterday. “We will take stern action within few days against the perpetrators involved with adulterated food business…necessary arrangement also has been taken to make the safe food act operational and hopefully that the country would be free from food adulteration within one or two years”, said the minister. The people will see the outcome of the food safe act soon as the enactment of rules under the safe food act is now underway, the government has already established food court at 64 districts and imparted training to some 200 officials on food safety to this end, said the minister.
With Acting FBCCI President Mrs Hasina Newaaz in the chair it was addressed by Information Advisor to the Prime Minister Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and Senior Commerce Secretary Hedayetullah Al Mamun as the special guests. Dr Tamanna Chowdhury, Principal of Nutrition Division of the private Apollo Hospital presented the keynote speech at the programme. Lauding the present government success in checking the food adulteration, the food minister said it has enacted ‘Safe Food Act’ in 2013 and formed ‘Bangladesh Safe Food Authority’ in 2015, now working at the upazila level which was exception and no other government had done it before. It is constitutional responsibility of the government to contain the food adulteration, but the mass awareness is also important to resist the food adulteration, the minister added. Approximately we consume around 2400 Metric tons food in per day, said Mostaque Hasan Mohammad Iftekhar, chairman of Bangladesh Safe Food Authority, adding that so we need to ensure safe food at all the stages including production, processing, storage and marketing of the food. Sohrab Hasan, associate editor of Prothom Alo, Zakir Hossain, general secretary of Super-shop Association of Bangladesh, Harun-Ar Rashid, chairman of Private Asian Television and representatives of other food business organizations, among others, joined the roundtable.
