Bangladesh cabinet approves tougher law to fight food adulteration

Dhaka: Bangladesh on Monday approved a new law with a provision of seven years jail term to tackle food adulteration.

He said once enacted by the parliament, the law would allow mobile and penal courts to hand down jail sentences up to 14 years along with fines for food crimes under 22 categories.

Officials familiar with the process, however, said the original draft of the law suggested death penalty for the food crimes which could cause loss of lives but it was scaled down for technical reasons and seeking intensified preventive measures to stop sale of adulterated or low quality food.

The new law came amid growing concerns expressed by experts and consumer rights groups who said food adulteration reached a dangerous proportion posing serious health hazards in the country.

Experts and officials said more than 76 percent food items in the market were found adulterated in a random survey by Public Health Laboratory of Dhaka City Corporation.