Actions under way to meet quality standards

FE Team | Published: October 27, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Doulot Akter Mala
The government has started taking measures to effectively comply with suggestions made by the European Union on the quality standards of frozen foods.
An inspection team from EU put forward the suggestions during its recent visit to Bangladesh.
The two-member EU delegation, in a wrap-up meeting with the government, has suggested for initiating some measures immediately to comply with the suggestions.
The government will have to send a report to the food and veterinary office (FVO) in Brussels about the measures being taken in line with the recommendations of the team, a source, who attended the meeting, said.
The visiting team has witnessed lack of coordination between the central and regional authorities entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring the quality standards of frozen food products meant for export.
The government has planned some major changes including recruitment of trained technical manpower in the Fisheries Inspection and Quality Control (FIQC) laboratories in Dhaka, Khulna and Chittagong.
In the meeting, the fisheries and livestock adviser CS Karim has underscored the need to separate the FIQC from the department of fisheries (DoF) in order to strengthen the monitoring of standards of export products, another meeting source said.
The government is also contemplating imposition of ban on import of nitrofuran, a chemical normally used in veterinary feed meal, as its detection in the frozen shrimp export consignments hindered the export to major EU buyers, he added.
The government is planning to form a 'fisheries regulatory body' to monitor the food safety standard of fishery products as per importing countries directives, he further said.
After the wrap-up meeting with EU team, the government transferred the Director General of fisheries inspection and quality control (FIQC) laboratory of Chittagong to the departmental office in Chandpur.
The EU team will submit a report to their headquarters in Brussels within 20 days of their visit about the food safety standards prevailing in the frozen food processing industries and laboratories of Bangladesh.
During their nine-day visit, the two-member EU team has expressed satisfaction over the significant improvements in the testing laboratories and quality issues achieved since their last visit in 2005.
In 2005, an inspection team of EU visited the shrimp processing and testing laboratories and had found some shortcomings in the laboratories including lack of sufficient testing equipments.
Last year, the EU returned a number of consignments of frozen foods after the detection of harmful chemicals, including nitrofuran, in those.
The food and veterinary office (FVO) of the EU had been asking the frozen food exporters for long to comply with their food safety requirements to maintain smooth flow of exports.
The FVO also warned the frozen foods exporters last year that it might ban import of frozen foods from Bangladesh if the exporters failed to comply with its recommendations.
Against the backdrop, the government has installed nitrofuran-detecting machine.
Earlier, in July 1997, the EU imposed a ban on export of fish products from Bangladesh for non-compliance of the food safety directives of FVO.
Later it withdrew the ban in February 1998 on the government's assurance on complying with the safety standards.
After withdrawal of restriction on shipment in 1998 by the EU, the earnings from export of shrimp have grown by 55 per cent.
The export of shrimp jumped to $403.58 million in the fiscal 2005-06 from US$ 260 million in 1997-98, according to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) statistics.
Following withdrawal of the ban, the overall export earnings from frozen shrimps stood at $ 242.23 million, $322.43 million, $ 349.75 million, 252.18 million, $ 297.04 million, $ 362.87 million and $ 365.82 million in 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04 and 2004-05 fiscals respectively, the EPB statistics showed.
In the current fiscal, the target of frozen foods export has been set at $550 million.
In fiscal 2006-07, the export volume of such products was $515 million against target of $ 495 million.
Frozen foods of the country have considerable demand in the US market although the major buyers are from EU member countries.
According to official figures, frozen food export to the USA rose to US$ 160 million in fiscal 2005-06 from $149 million in 2004-05 and $126 million in 2003-04.
The exports of frozen food were $80 million, $78 million and $80 million over the same period in the European Union excepting Belgium.
Its export to Belgium was $96 million, $84 million and $94 million respectively in 2005-06, 2004-05 and 2003-04.