The government has announced plans to expand mobile food testing laboratory services to all 64 districts as part of efforts to strengthen the campaign against food adulteration and ensure safe food for consumers across Bangladesh.
State Minister for Food Md Abdul Bari made the announcement in Parliament on Tuesday while responding to a notice on calling attention to a matter of urgent public importance raised by BNP MP Rafiqul Islam Jamal on food adulteration and public health.
He said ensuring safe food, preventing adulteration and protecting public health remain government priorities in line with its election manifesto.
Abdul Bari said the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), along with the Directorate of National Consumers’ Right Protection, Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), agriculture, fisheries and health departments, district and upazila administrations, local government bodies and law enforcement agencies, is conducting regular drives and monitoring activities to curb food adulteration.
He said legal action is being taken under the Penal Code, the Safe Food Act 2013, the Consumers’ Right Protection Act 2009 and the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution Act 2018.
The state minister added that offences involving the adulteration of food, beverages, medicines or cosmetics are also punishable under the Special Powers Act 1974, which provides for penalties ranging from fines to imprisonment and, in the gravest cases, life imprisonment or the death penalty.
Providing enforcement statistics, he said 122 mobile courts conducted under the Safe Food Act between February and June 2026 imposed fines totalling Tk 1.32 crore. During the same period, summary trial courts, led by judicial magistrates, fined offenders Tk 62 lakh in 19 cases, while 25 cases against food business operators remain pending before food courts.
Abdul Bari said the BFSA has established 72 mini laboratories across the country's 64 districts and eight divisional offices to detect adulterants, unauthorised colours and harmful chemicals in food. The laboratories conduct microbiological, chemical and swab tests on essential food items.
According to him, 6,795 food samples were tested in the past five months, while testing of 19,700 samples this year is underway. “Initiatives have been taken to further enhance the capacity of the laboratories.”
The state minister also said eight mobile laboratory vans are currently operating across the country's eight divisions, enabling on-the-spot testing of products, including milk, ghee and vegetables. To strengthen surveillance, the government plans to procure 64 additional mobile laboratory vans under a project aimed at enhancing food testing and surveillance capacity.
He added that food samples collected nationwide are also being tested at 47 government-approved public and private laboratories.
The government has also undertaken a project to establish a reference laboratory in Dhaka, along with two divisional laboratories in Chattogram and Khulna, under the BFSA's Food Testing Capacity Development Project, Abdul Bari said.
He said food testing has been introduced for all imported food items at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Chattogram Port, Mongla Port and Benapole Land Port.
The state minister also referred to a meeting held by the Prime Minister on July 6 with executive magistrates and field officials involved in anti-adulteration drives, saying a committee, headed by the public administration adviser, has already been formed to recommend ways to make safe food initiatives and anti-adulteration campaigns more effective.
Earlier, lawmaker Jamal expressed concern that magistrates conducting anti-adulteration drives often lack modern equipment to identify contaminated food on the spot, allowing offenders to evade punishment due to insufficient evidence.
He urged the government to ensure that Jhalakathi is included in the expansion of modern food testing facilities and called for stronger enforcement at the district level.
In reply, Abdul Bari said all 64 districts already have mini laboratories and the planned fleet of mobile laboratory vans will allow testing teams to reach upazilas and rural markets more effectively.
He said the government is also upgrading district laboratories and establishing larger regional laboratories to improve food testing capacity and facilitate immediate testing during field inspections.