Food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder inaugurated mobile food testing laboratory of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority at the authority鈥檚 office at Shahbagh in the capital on Wednesday.
Sadhan Chandra said, 鈥楴o matter how many mobile laboratories we provide. Those who are consumers, suppliers and producers have to clean the laboratory of their own minds.鈥�
Instructing everyone to consume safe food, the minister said, 鈥業f I do not test it, I cannot understand whether the food is safe or unsafe. Let鈥檚 raise awareness together to take safe food.鈥�
Food Safety Authority member Abu Noor Shamsuzzaman conducted the programme where food secretary Md Ismail Hossain was present as a special guest, said a press release.
Meanwhile, he sought the cooperation of the district administration, agriculture department and others for the proper management of the mobile lab.
Bangladesh Food Safety chairman Zakaria presided over the event. He termed the day as a monumental step to ensure safe food.
It may be noted that seven mobile labs were purchased from China to facilitate testing of food samples at the seven divisional headquarters of the country under the capacity building project of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
Presence of detergent, starch, urea in milk; presence of vegetable or hydrogenated edible fat in ghee, presence of lead chromate in turmeric powder, presence of brick powder in chilli powder, adulteration in coconut oil, coloring in vegetables and fruits, determination of pesticide levels in vegetables, fruits, mixture of sugar in honey, presence of harmful potassium bromate in bread, presence of unauthorised artificial colors in food and many more tests including the presence of harmful heavy metals in food can be done in a short time at this mobile laboratory.
In the event, the keys of the mobile van were handed over to the food safety officials of Khulna, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Sylhet and Barisal divisions.
