BFSA to intensify watch on errant hotels next week
TALHA BIN HABIB | Saturday, 26 October 2019
Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) will intensify its monitoring drive against errant hotels and restaurants from the next week considering the interests of the consumers.
As part of the move, the national agency for ensuring hygiene and food safety has taken several initiatives that include formation of monitoring teams and preparing guidelines for the owners of the eateries and the consumers too.
"We've formed several monitoring teams and prepared guidelines for ensuring safe food for the consumers," chairman of BFSA Syeda Sarwar Jahan told the FE.
She said that initially the BFSA formed four monitoring teams to look into the hygiene affairs and food safety regulations at the eateries in the capital.
"The monitoring teams will start work from next week (tomorrow/ or Sunday)," she said.
Apart from the monitoring teams, the guidelines prepared by the BFSA will also help the customers and restaurant owners about hygiene and food safety matters.
The BFSA was established under Section 5 of The Food Safety Act, 2013.
The BFSA has the mandate to regulate and monitor the activities related to food production, import, processing, storage, distribution and sale of food for ensuring access of safe food for the consumers.
Earlier, the BFSA introduced grading system for some restaurants in the capital to determine their quality in terms of hygiene and food safety regulations.
The restaurants have been classified into four different categories such as green, blue, yellow and orange.
The BFSA distributed four types of stickers: grades of A+, A, B and C respectively after scrutinising food quality of the restaurants located in Purana Paltan, Motijeel and National Press Club areas of the capital.
Grade A+ means excellent while A would means good, B means average and C grade pending.
Orange coloured restaurant is unsafe while yellow sticker restaurant will get three months to upgrade their quality.
The licence of those restaurants will be cancelled if they fail to improve their quality.