BFSA holds workshop on safe food during Ramadan

Safe food cannot be ensured only by enforcing laws; people's integrity, public awareness and social movement are also essential to do that.

"The whole process – from preparation to selling iftar items – has to be adulteration-free during the upcoming Ramadan. No extra money is needed for preparing safe food: only integrity, awareness and abiding by the laws of the land are needed," Chairman of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) Abdul Qayum Sarker said Wednesday at a workshop on ensuring safe food during the upcoming Ramadan.

Hotel and restaurant owners, fruit traders, food and hygiene experts, mobile court team members, and local representatives took part in the workshop organised by the BFSA at Jamal Sarder Community Centre in Old Dhaka.

Abdul Qayum said that the mobile court teams will conduct rigorous drives against food adulteration during the upcoming Ramadan.

BFSA has been raising awareness of laws, hygiene, cleanliness, personal hygiene of the staff, food storing and preservation, human resource management of food business etc so that no businesses face legal action, he added.       

BFSA Project Director Manzur Morshed Ahmed said it is possible to ensure safe food through public awareness and the BFSA wants to turn the safe food project into a form of social movement.

"People can be stopped from food adulteration through jail and fine but it does not last long," he said.

The special guest at the workshop and BFSA Member Shahnewaz Dilruba Khan said that the stakeholders are being informed about food management during Ramadan. No excuse will be accepted during the mobile court drive in case of deviation, he added.