Licences of 11 food, cosmetic cos revoked
Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution on Wednesday revoked manufacturing licences of 11 companies for producing 13 substandard food and cosmetics products.
The national standards enforcement authorities also requested the companies for withdrawing their substandard foods from the market and urged consumers not to purchase the food products.
BSTI deputy director Reazul Haque told New Age that they randomly tested samples of the substandard food products as part of their regular market monitoring activities.
The substandard products are Farm Fresh Ghee of Akij Food and Beverage Limited; Shakti/kitchena fortified soybean oil of Shakti Edible Private Limited; Safe fortified soybean oil of AK Khan Food and Beverage; Ut (camel) Iodised salt of Bismillah Salt Factory; Nazrul iodised salt of Janata Salt Mill; Madina Laccha Semai of JK Food Products; Arabian Special Ghee of New Chattala Private Limited; Raven Laccha Semai of Raven Food Company Limited; Khazana Laccha Semai, Khazana Ghee and Khazana Chanachur of Khazana Mithai Limited; Modern Skin Cream of Modern Cosmetics and Herbal Industries Limited; and GM Skin Cream of GM Chemical Works.
The BSTI also ordered wholesalers, retailers, suppliers and producers to stay away from selling, distributing, preserving, and advertising the food and cosmetics products.
Since May, the BSTI has tested about 500 products, mostly food products, from the markets and found 85 of the products spurious or unusable.
Leading food producers were slapped with production ban in phases. Some of them failed to improve their product quality even after given a second chance.
Some of the companies had to apply fresh for manufacturing their products again.
On Wednesday, the BSTI said that the companies whose manufacturing licences were cancelled would have to apply fresh for manufacturing their products again.
The BSTI earlier drew the wrath of the High Court Division for not doing enough for protecting consumers’ health.
It is now under the instruction of the court to strengthen its market monitoring.
News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net
