Food safety monitoring to expand gradually to all 64 districts
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman inspected a mobile laboratory van at the Secretariat as authorities intensified food safety monitoring and anti-adulteration efforts, with plans to expand mobile laboratory operations gradually to all 64 districts.
The government is strengthening food safety surveillance through mobile laboratories and intensified food adulteration checks, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman was informed during an inspection at the Secretariat on Wednesday.
The prime minister inspected the mobile laboratory van in the morning before entering his office. The vehicle was stationed beneath the Prime Minister’s Office at the Cabinet Division.
He entered the van and observed how food samples were collected and tested. Officials briefed him on the laboratory’s operations and ongoing monitoring activities.
They informed him that food sample testing and monitoring had been intensified in all 64 districts as part of anti-adulteration drives, with mobile laboratories being used to support the activities.
However, mobile laboratory-based testing and monitoring are currently being conducted in eight metropolitan areas. The programme is planned to expand gradually to all 64 districts.
The monitoring activities are carried out separately through mobile courts led by executive magistrates and under the supervision of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
The authority is also working to introduce 72 mobile laboratory vans under its capacity-building project for the 2026-27 fiscal year, officials said.
The vans are equipped with facilities designed to raise public awareness about food safety. Monitors installed on the exterior of the vehicles screen videos carrying food safety awareness messages, allowing the mobile units to serve both monitoring and public education purposes.
The expansion plan comes as authorities pursue intensified efforts to detect food adulteration and strengthen food safety monitoring across the country.
Food Minister Afroza Khanam, Chief Whip Nurul Islam Moni, State Minister for Food Abdul Bari, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister ABM Abdus Sattar, Public Administration Secretary Kamruzzaman Chowdhury and senior officials of the Food Ministry were present during the inspection.
