It is encouraging to know that a total of 11 factories were closed down by Bangladesh’s Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) during the holy month of Ramadan. These factories, according to yesterday reports, were producing adulterated foods or were producing foods without following rules. BSTI conducted a total of 71 mobile court drives during the month, and 19 people were sentenced to different jail terms and Taka 2.6 crore was realized as fine.

The crimes the factories were punished for include they did not have BSTI license, used burnt oil to fry snacks, used labels without BSTI approval, or used BSTI seal illegally in labels, prepared and served food in unhygienic environment, etc.

It is quite understandable why the BSTI authorities chose to conduct these drives in Ramadan. It is a month of self-edification and the BSTI authorities might have thought, in a more serious way, that they had a duty to ensure that fasting people were consuming standard foods. No we do not want to say that BSTI was active only in Ramadan, it indeed conducts drives at other times. But the point here is the practice of producing adulterated food is so rife that the BSTI should remain intensely active all through the year.

The BSTI seal in foods is taken to be the necessary guaranty by the consumer in general who think here is a food item the edibility of which is maintained according to the line of BSTI. That is why it is the BSTI that will have to ensure that the item carrying the BSTI seal is not adulterated and is safe for consumption. If here BSTI fails, the consumers will have nowhere to go. And it is not only in Dhaka this hazard is prevalent, everywhere in the country people are being cheated by the dishonest food traders.

A fatalistic attitude has developed in the mind of people that if they were to live in Bangladesh, they could not but take the adulterated or substandard foods as their lot. But they have to take the food with a ‘Bismillah’, and Allah will protect them. But the state has its solemn responsibility to ensure that food products that are being sold in the marketplaces throughout the country are not harmful to public health. Conducting drives against food adulterators all through the year involves huge cost and manpower, but health is so precious to a person that it is worth investing necessary state fund to ensure that he is consuming standard foods.