Bangladesh is now free of formalin in food, says commerce minister

Bangladesh's food markets are now fully free of formalin, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has announced.

He made the claim in response to a charge raised by a trader at a meeting of the commerce ministry on Sunday to review prices of daily commodities prior to Ramadan.

In recent years, the government launched several crackdowns in kitchen markets and super shops to stop use of formalin in fruits, vegetables and fish.

Formalin detectors were also supplied at many of these stores.

A trader, Atikur Rahman Chowdhury, said he had received a formalin detector from the ministry which was of no use.

"Why did they give this? It never served us in any way," said Atikur, general secretary of Mirpur Shah Ali City Corporation Market.

Minister Tofail, however, claimed there was no chance of formalin being present in fruits, vegetables or fish these days.

But the trader responded: "With due respect I ask the minister to address the issue so that we can sell formalin-free products to our customers. The government monitors the market throughout Ramadan but not during the rest 11 months. Why is that?"

To this, the minister said, they were not aware of such condition. But formalin is not used anymore.

"The import of formalin was stopped following enactment of the Formalin Control Act 2015. Factories and industries need special permission from me in case they want to import formalin," Tofail said.

"What you described is an old scenario. Bangladesh is now absolutely formalin-free, I guarantee you that," asserted the minister.

Retailers, wholesalers and importers attended the discussion with officials of different government organisations.