Food Safety Authority starts issuing health certificates for agri exports

The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) has issued health certificates to ESL Bangladesh Limited and Trust and Trade for the export of sesame oil to Japan, maintaining the required standards.

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar handed over the certificates to the exporters at a programme in the BFSA office of the capital on Sunday.

With this, BFSA officially started issuing certificates to exporters, an activity which was previously done by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).

The food safety authority said there is a huge demand for sesame oil in Japan but their condition for export is that the fatty acid content of this oil should be below 6%.

BFSA tested the sesame oils and found the fatty acid content of both companies' products to be well below 6%.

Foreign countries import food products from Bangladesh by maintaining their respective safety regulations and standards. They seek a credible certificate, mainly from a government agency, that unequivocally states the products as "fit for consumption".

The EPB issued this certificate in a way that was not transparent and business-friendly. To solve the issue, the government recently assigned the BFSA as the sole authority to collect random product samples from the containers at the port, test them in the labs and issue the certificates.

For products worth up to Tk50 lakh, BFSA will charge the exporting company a fee of Tk2,000-Tk5,000. In addition, the exporters have to pay the sample transportation and lab test fees.

At the certificate issuance event, Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumdar said, "At present, we have to show certificates to prove the safety of our export products. But we need to reach the point [of the standard] when none will question our products."

BFSA Chairman Md Abdul Kayowm Sarker said, "The test requirements of each country are different. We are preparing in advance with the standards of different countries. We need to bump up the quality of our export agricultural products to gain trust worldwide."