Kazi Azizul Islam
One of every seven essential food products, especially which are marketed in packets, has no seal of standardisation on its label, revealed a survey conducted by the Consumer Association of Bangladesh.
Such a seal, which is approved by the national standardisation organisation–– Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute, is mandatory in the label of every packed food item in the market.
A CAB release on Thursday said it had conducted a random survey on 184 brands of 10 major food items including coarse flour, chili powder, turmeric powder, salt, milk powder, chocolate, chanachur, biscuits and sliced bread.
The consumer right group found that 29 of the brands had no BSTI seal. CAB further noticed that dates of manufacturing were not inked on the labels of 22 per cent of the surveyed products, 23 per cent had not inked expiry dates, and 40 per cent had no seal of maximum retail price.
Among the surveyed products, 5 per cent had not printed addresses of manufacturers and 62 per cent had not printed instructions regarding storages. It is mandatory, however, to put all the above said information in the labels.
‘Regulations regarding standardisation of food products should be strictly implemented by the law enforcers and labelling rules should be enforced stringently,’ observed the Consumer Right Body.
It urged the government not to compromise on the issue of regulations on marketing food products as the matter is related with public health.
Courtesy of NewAgebd
