Fisheries and Livestock Adviser Farida Akhter on Sunday warned against the use of harmful pesticides that compromise nutritional value, highlighting the critical importance of ensuring public health and nutrition security.  She made these remarks while addressing a roundtable discussion on “Opportunities, Experiences and Challenges in Implementing Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Services at the District Level,” held at a hotel in Cox’s Bazar.  The adviser pointed out that industrial pollution remains a major obstacle to safe food production, with rivers and seas increasingly contaminated. “Microplastics have been found in fish. We are also opposing golden rice, as there are many local foods rich in zinc that can address the deficiency,” she said.  Highlighting the need for grassroots-level awareness, the advisor called for a social movement to promote nutritional consciousness and emphasised empowering women to achieve this goal. She also stressed the importance of safe practices in fish and livestock feed production, underscoring the need to focus on native fish varieties and region-specific livestock. "Nutrition is a fundamental right and ensuring it requires coordinated efforts from all sectors. Departments and agencies must work together to raise awareness on nutritional security," she added.  The advisor also expressed concerns about prioritising farmed fish over native species and the unsafe practices in animal feed. "Increasing local fish production is essential, as we have significant biodiversity that must be preserved,” she noted.  On women's empowerment, Farida Akhter stated, "Nearly half of pregnant women in Bangladesh suffer from anemia. Women's malnutrition is closely tied to their lack of rights. For the betterment of future generations, both men and women must be made aware of nutritional needs. However, women are key agents of change and empowering them will enable them to take a stand."  River, forestland encroachers to face strict action: Rizwana The roundtable was moderated Samakal’s Online-in-charge Goutam Mandal and presided over by Sayka Siraj, country director of Nutrition International. Nutrition International’s National Program Manager Iftia Zerin presented the keynote paper.  Later in the afternoon, the adviser visited the Cox’s Bazar district's ‘Dried Fish Processing Industry Establishment (1st Revised)’ project.  

In a significant move towards ensuring food safety and consumer protection, the Bangladesh Safe Food Authority (BFSA) hosted a meeting on Monday to present and solicit feedback on the "Safe Food (Advertisement and Claims) Regulations, 2024." Held in the BFSA training room, the gathering aimed at refining the draft regulation, which comprises 16 comprehensive articles addressing various aspects of food advertising and claims. Under the proposed regulation, penalties will be imposed for false advertising, use of language that offends community sentiments, obscene content, and false superiority claims about food products. The draft meticulously outlines conditions for advertising, including nutrition and no-salt claims, use of additives, health support claims, and prohibited claims. It also details the process for handling advertising complaints and the penalties for non-compliance. Read: Ghorer Bazar offers safe food products, focusing on health, sustainability Abdul Qayyum Sarkar, Chairman of the BFSA, chaired the meeting and encouraged the integration of stakeholder feedback into the final regulations. The session featured discussions led by notable participants, including Rezaul Karim, former BFSA member, and Nazma Begum, who delivered the welcoming address. Highlighting the regulations' objectives, Nazma Begum stated, "These regulations aim to halt misleading or inaccurate advertisements by considering consumer demands and adhering to Codex principles." Read: Ensure safe food: Food minister Professor Razia Begum of Dhaka University's Department of Marketing emphasized the importance of strict enforcement and broad media dissemination post-implementation. The event saw active participation from representatives of various food establishments, who contributed their insights, with the BFSA assuring consideration of all input received. Nazneen Akhter, a scientific officer at the BFSA, presented the keynote, while the meeting was moderated by Sheikh Ferdous Arafat, a law officer at the authority. This initiative represents a critical step toward enhancing food safety standards and consumer trust in Bangladesh. Read more: First 'Safe Food Carnival' in the country starts from Feb 8

Stating around 10.62 million tonnes of food are wasted every year in Bangladesh, speakers at an international conference on Sunday laid emphasis on modernising the country’s food safety system to prevent food losses and ensure safer food. They also said the presence of unsafe and contaminated food poses significant health risks, leading to various diseases such as diarrheal diseases and cancer while the annual economic losses from just six diseases alone in Dhaka city are around $1.65 billion. Also Read: 10th International Food Security Conference to be held in Dhaka on Sunday The experts urged private entrepreneurs to invest in the agriculture sector for making good profit as well as helping the country overcome challenges in ensuring food security and building a healthy nation. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) Bangladesh in collaboration with the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority arranged the "10th International Food Security Conference" at a city hotel. Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder inaugurated the conference as the chief guest. The theme of this year’s conference “Keeping Food Safe and Nutritious, Preventing Losses” focused on climate change as well as good food safety practices, and the impact of reducing nutrition and food waste. Speaking at the programme, the minister said the government is committed to ensuring nutrition and food safety as it is a prerequisite for building a healthy and prosperous nation. Also Read: FAO DG lauds PM Hasina’s leadership in ensuring food security in Bangladesh “Food is one of the basic human rights. According to our constitution, the basic responsibility of the state is to ensure food for all citizens. We also consider ensuring nutrition for people and improving public health as the primary responsibility of the state,” he said. The minister called upon the experts to shed light on the challenges in ensuring food security in the country and find out their solutions. He said Bangladesh Safe Food Authority is playing the role of the main coordinator to ensure food safety in the country. “But it is not possible to do it with only one authority or ministry. Everyone has to come on one platform and do proper and logical things to create effective safe food management.” ALso Read: Bangladesh receives $858 mln World Bank fund for agriculture growth, road safety The minister also said that Bangladesh needs to adopt comprehensive and effective measures to deal with the multifaceted problem of ensuring safe food. “So, proper research and development is required. Adequate investment is needed for building capacity and conducting science-based research." IFC Director of Global Manufacturing‚ Agribusiness and Services Wagner Albuquerque de Almeida said there is no question that food safety is critical for health and for economic development.  "Food safety and reduced food losses can only be ensured with the active participation of the private sector, and partnership with the public sector, and we must work together if we are to achieve our goals.” Food Ministry’s acting secretary Salma Mumtaz said it is necessary to ensure nutrition and quality food for building a healthy nation and enhancing the country’s development. She also said proper steps should be taken to reduce post-harvest food losses and food wastage at different stages and enhance the food safety mechanism to ensure the food safety of the country. Agriculture Ministry Additional Secretary Rabindra Shree Barua said being a small country it is a big challenge for Bangladesh to feed its 180 million people with quality food by increasing production. He said Bangladesh has made significant progress in the agriculture sector and the country has achieved self-sufficiency in cereal production. “But climate change is one of the big challenges for the country in ensuring food safety. We’re facing growing natural disasters, including cyclones, floods, excessive rainfall and drought, and heat waves caused by climate change, affecting food production." Also Read: Food Safety Day: Checking trans-fat intake demanded Barua also said lack of quality food processing facilities, quality silos, and multiple uses of land are also barriers to ensuring food safety in the country. “Our silos are not getting rest and our land is not getting rest as we grow two-three crops in a year.”  He said salinity in the coastal region is another factor that is hampering food production, forcing the government to invest in research for developing salinity tolerance crop varieties. “Food contamination caused by the use of excessive fertilizer and pesticides is a challenge in ensuring quality food. Our farmers believe that the more they use fertilizers, the more they will get crops. So, we’re trying to make the farmers aware of using the fertilizer and pesticides,” Barua said. About 300 local delegates and 43 foreign representatives from 24 countries, including IFC representatives, policymakers, top food producers, manufacturers, retailers, tourism companies, cold chain logistics providers, consumer organizations, and other key stakeholders participated in the conference.    

Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder on Wednesday urged all concerned to work for ensuring food safety for the consumers, not only during Ramadan but also throughout the year.    He instructed the officials concerned to take effective steps to raise mass awareness about safe food. “Please work to reach safe food to the consumers.” The minister was addressing a view-exchange meeting titled ‘Measures to Ensure Food Safety during Ramadan’ virtually at the Bangladesh Secretariat as the chief guest.  “Activities of the food offices at the grassroots level need to be visible. If consumers are not aware, then it will not be possible to become successful. That’s why awareness has to be raised among people. Food offices will have to work closely with the businessmen, people’s representatives, and administration to ensure adulteration-free food alongside raising awareness among people.” READ: Self-reliance in seed production essential for food security: FBCCI Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) Chairman Abdul Kaiyum Sarker presided over the programme while food secretary Mosammat Nazmanara Khanum spoke as the special guest. Nazmanara Khanum said food officials have been working in the country with various limitations.  BFSA Chairman Abdul Kaiyum Sarker said a total of 2,560 food traders have been given training on safe sehri preparation and food marketing across the country.

The World Food Safety Day is being observed in the country on Monday as elsewhere in the globe with an aim to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage food borne risks and contributing to food security. This year’s theme, ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’, stresses that production and consumption of safe food has immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy, according to WHO. Read: FAO lauds Hasina's leadership in attaining food security in Bangladesh Recognizing the systemic connections between the health of people, animals, plants, the environment and the economy will help us meet the needs of the future. Recognizing the global burden of foodborne diseases, which affect individuals of all ages, in particular children under-5 and persons living in low-income countries, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in 2018 that every 7 June would be World Food Safety Day. In 2020, the World Health Assembly further passed a resolution to strengthen global efforts for food safety to reduce the burden of food borne disease. WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly facilitate the observance of World Food Safety Day, in collaboration with Member States and other relevant organizations. Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers.  Everyone has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and healthy. Read: Campaign on right to food, health launched Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO works to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of food borne diseases globally. Marking World Food Safety Day, advocacy and research organization PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) urged to immediately finalize and implement the regulations on limiting trans fats in food. Industrially produced transfat is a toxic food element that increases risks of premature deaths from heart diseases. Around 500,000 people die across the globe each year due to transfat-induced heart diseases. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set the target to eliminate industrially produced transfat from the global food supply by 2023. Read: UAE provides 50 mts humanitarian food aid to Bangladesh The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority has prepared the draft “Regulations on Trans Fatty Acids Control in Foodstuffs, 2021”, but its finalization is still underway. Underscoring World Food Safety Day, Executive Director of PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) ABM Zubair has said, “There is no alternative to  safe food for nurturing a healthy generation. Eliminating trans fat from food can save the lives of thousands and it is also a cost effective measure for the government. Trans fat must be eliminated from the food chain immediately for ensuring safe food for all.”  

A campaign aimed at ensuring the right to food, food safety and health began with the pledges made by youths to achieve the objectives through personal action and advocacy.  Over 100 youths from 18 countries, including Bangladesh, USA, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, Switzerland and China, took oaths at the campaign titled "Act4Food Act4Change" held virtually on Tuesday night. "Act4Food Act4Change" is a global youth-led movement promising to achieve sustainable global food systems that provide all people with access to healthy and sustainable diets. Switzerland-based organization ‘Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)’ and UK-based non-government organization ‘The Food Foundation’ jointly facilitated the virtual programme from their respective locations. Read: UAE provides 50 mts humanitarian food aid to Bangladesh UK and Ireland governments are associate partners, said a media release on Wednesday.  The campaign will also be carried out in social media platforms such as Facebook, youtube, twitter and instagram. The campaign, being held ahead of United Nation Food System Summit, will continue till September this year. The event is likely to be extended later. The supply of nutritious and safe foods for people has become a challenging task recently due to Covid-19 situation, said the organizers. Hence, they said, it is imperative to ensure the availability of those foods with the combined efforts of all concerned along with raising awareness of people.  Dipty Chowdhury, a youth leader of UN Food System Summit Action Track-1 and representative of Bhalo Khabo Bhaloa Thakbo campaign of GAIN Bangladesh; Rayan Kassem, Regional Director Youth4Nature, Lebanon; Priya Prakash, Founder HealthSetGo, India; Sophie Healy; Food system and nutrition advocate & Lead Group member of the Scaling Up Nutrition Movement (SUN), Ireland; among others, spoke at the event. Simon Coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, has given video message for the campaign. Femi Oke, internationally renowned journalist, moderated the event. In her address, Dipty Chowdhury, youth leader of Bangladesh said, “I want to see nutritious food as a basic right and get rid of all the cheap junk food that is now readily available to us”. Read:Antimicrobial resistance can even threaten food security: PM Hasina In a statement, Dr. Rudaba Khondker, Country Director of GAIN Bangladesh, said, “Youths especially the girls and young women can shape the food systems for affordable nutritious and safe food for all. During Covid, its importance has become even more crucial and critical”. Both of them said, Bangladesh can take the lead in line with global pledge by engaging members of Nutrition Clubs across the country and raise awareness on healthy diets among students. The success of “Bhalo Khabo Bhalo Thakbo” campaign, supported by GAIN Bangladesh, more than 1 million adolescents have so far pledged to consume better food. It has worked as an inspiration to this global youth movement and initiative. “Bhalo Khabo Bhalo Thakbo” is an ongoing campaign in Bangladesh where any adolescent can take part in it.