Court issues arrest warrants against three for marketing substandard food products, including KitKat

Prosecutors say dairy products hardly contain any milk

A Dhaka court handling food fraud cases has issued arrest warrants against three individuals for importing and marketing dairy products that fell below the standards set by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI).

Special Metropolitan Magistrate Nusrat Sahara Bithi issued the warrants on Monday after three separate cases were filed in the morning.

The three people named in the court orders include:

• Mozammel Hossain, owner of Sumaiya Enterprise, the marketer of the Nestlé-produced KitKat chocolate bar;

• Mohammad Shahabuddin Alam, chairman of SA Group, the importer of Goalini Daily Full Cream Milk Powder; and

• Shafiqur Rahman, owner of Amania Bakery and Sweets, producer and marketer of a substandard curd.

“The dairy products tested at the government laboratory barely contained any milk,” said Kamrul Hasan, a food inspector at Dhaka South City Corporation who started the cases.

“The judge was particularly surprised to learn that the famous KitKat chocolate bar failed a food safety test,” he added.

According to prosecutors, KitKat, marketed as milk chocolate, contained only 9.12 percent milk solids, below the BSTI standard of 12–14 percent. Its milk fat was measured at 1.16 percent, against the permissible 2.5–3.5 percent. Low milk solids suggest food adulteration, while reduced milk fat could indicate substitution with oil or vegetable fat.

Goalini Full Cream Milk Powder contained 7.58 percent milk fat, far below the permissible 42 percent, and milk protein at 9.5 percent versus the allowed 34 percent. Prosecutors noted that the product should have been classified as partially skimmed milk powder rather than full cream, based on its fat content.

The unbranded curd produced by Amania Bakery and Sweets contained 1.33 percent milk protein, against a minimum requirement of 2.7 percent, the prosecutor said.

The cases were filed under the Food Safety Act, 2013. Repeated attempts to contact the accused over the phone for comment went unanswered.