News Desk : dhakamirror.com
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said at a meeting on Wednesday that rice could not be sold as miniket because there was no such variety.
Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said at a meeting on Wednesday that rice could not be sold as miniket because there was no such variety.
He made his remarks while serving as the meeting’s chief guest at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute’s headquarters in Gazipur. He advised using the name of the rice type when promoting the staple food.
‘Rice sacks must carry the name of its variety, or else the millers will face legal action,’ he said.
Agriculture secretary Md Sayedul Islam presided over the discussion while Information and Communication Technology Division senior secretary NM Zeaul Alam was present as a special guest.
The BRRI director general Md Shahjahan Kabir presented the keynote speech.
Discussants at the meeting talked about the importance of implementing local technologies to enter the global food market.
All varieties of so-called Miniket rice and most of the Najirshail varieties found on the market across Bangladesh are actually over-polished coarse varieties of rice, a study by the BRRI revealed in 2021.
Such milling leaves rice with only carbohydrate, completely removing vitamin B, thiamine, riboflavin, and niacin and reducing the zinc content to half.
The BRRI’s research wing estimated that the Najirshail variety accounted for less than one per cent of the country’s overall rice output while roughly 80 per cent of the rice sold on the market is branded as either Miniket or Najirshail.
Food mislabeling is forbidden by the nation’s safe food law, which carries a fine and a prison sentence as penalties. The maximum penalty is two years in prison and a fine of Tk 4 lakh.
