Electrolyte drinks, 15 more products need BSTI nod

The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), the country's product quality control and certification agency, brought electrolyte drinks under its mandatory standard certification scheme along with 15 other products, bringing their companies under regulatory grip.
In addition to electrolyte drinks, the 15 other products are: printed silk sarees, dishwashers, washing machines, kitchen machines, kitchen hoods, bed mattresses, steviol glycosides, custard powder, evaporated skimmed milk with vegetable fat, evaporated milk, aluminum alloy foil, wood-plastic recycled composites, household electric cooking appliances, and gel ink ball pens and refills.
This move ensures that a total of 16 new products are now subject to BSTI's quality checks.
To add any new products for the mandatory certification scheme, it is required for the BSTI to develop quality testing capabilities, or if it lacks its own testing system, it can be done through the authorisation of testing and marketing via agreements with accredited organisations.
On May 14, five companies producing electrolyte drinks were sued by the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) for lacking regulatory approval.
The companies can now do business legally as BSTI will have a standard of the products following the new development, said insiders.
The decision to include these products was made during the 40th BSTI Council Meeting, held at the organisation's head office in Dhaka.
At present, 299 products are covered by the mandatory certification scheme. Once these 16 new products are gazetted, the number will rise to 315.
The meeting was presided over by Adilur Rahman Khan, the adviser to the Ministry of Industries and the council chairman of BSTI, and Zakia Sultana, the senior secretary of the ministry, and BSTI council vice chairman.
SM Ferdous Alam, BSTI director general and council member-secretary, also attended the meeting, along with representatives from various ministries.
Trade bodies and consumer rights organisations including FBCCI, BCCI, MCCI, DCCI, and CAB were also present.
Earlier in May, a case was filed by a Food Safety Inspector against the owners of five electrolyte drink companies, SMC Plus, Pran Active, Bruvana, Recharge, and Turbo, for selling products without regulatory approval.
The BFSA alleged that these products had not been approved and could not be classified as either drugs or drinks by even the state-run Drug Administration, which was a violation under the Safe Food Act.
Despite being asked to halt their advertising campaigns, none of the companies then complied, said the BFSA. Notably, a famous cricketer endorsed the drinks of one of the brands during this period.
The companies appealed the decision in the court following the lawsuit.
However, the Food Safety Act, 2013, under the BFSA, does not prohibit the marketing of food products that lack established standards.
Instead, section 13 of the Act mandates the authority to set quality benchmarks and provide guidance if a product lacks them.
However, to date, the BFSA has not established standards for any food products.
BFSA officials said it is not feasible to suddenly set standards for the thousands of products available in the market, nor is it possible to ban them outright.
They said the authorities focus on testing the products, which it believes pose health risks.
Measures are only taken when these risks are confirmed through testing, according BFSA.
Consumer rights groups say that more essential products should be under the supervision of the BSTI through raising its capacity as it is the country's only standards regulatory body.

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