BSTI revokes licences of products from nine companies

BSTI has revoked licences of different products from nine companies after they were found substandard, according to a corrected statement.

Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution also suspended the production, marketing and retail sale permits of these products in a move revealed on Monday.

The products are – Ifad iodised salt of Ifad Salt and Chemical Ltd, fortified soybean oil by Kitchen AK Khan Food and Beverage Ltd, Madina lachchha vermicelli of JK Food Products, Modern skin cream of Modern Cosmetics and Herbal Industries Ltd, GM skin cream of GM Chemical Works, Arabian special ghee of New Chattala Ltd, Reven lachchha vermicelli of Reven Food Company Ltd, lachchha semai, ghee and chanachur of Khajana Mithai Ltd, and turmeric powder of Promi Agro Food Ltd.

“The institution collected the samples from market and found them substandard in lab tests. Separate letters had been sent to the companies over the reports. The problem was found again during a BSTI test after collecting samples from factories,” Sajjadul Bari, director of BSTI’s Certification Marks (CM) wing, told bdnews24.com.

The BSTI asked the producers to stop production, marketing and retail sale until licences of these products are cleared after improvement of standards.

Storing and commercial advertisement of these products have also been prohibited.

An Ifad spokesman said the company would respond to the BSTI action later.

The other firms could not be reached for comments.

Earlier in the day, BSTI said in a statement it had cancelled licences of different products from 13 firms, including Farm Fresh ghee of Akij Food & Beverage Ltd.

“As far as we are concerned, the BSTI has mistakenly placed our name on its list. The standard of our good is right and we have a valid certificate,” MA Iqbal, an official with Akij Food & Beverage Ltd, told bdnews24.com at the time.

In the corrected statement, BSTI dropped the names of the Akij product, Shakti edible soybean oil of Shakti Edible Pvt Ltd, Ut iodized salt of Bismillah Salt Factory, and Nazrul iodized salt of Janata Salt Mills.

“The names of these products were included in the first statement by mistake,” the second statement said.