Photo: Collected
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has toured a mobile laboratory (mobile laboratory van) set up for safe food testing.
He inspected the mobile laboratory this morning before entering his own office at the Secretariat, Deputy Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Hasan Shiplu said.
Going inside the van, parked below the Prime Minister’s office at the Cabinet Division in the Secretariat, he watched the process of collecting and testing food samples; the officials concerned briefed him on the laboratory’s work.
Officials told the Prime Minister that, as part of the drive against adulteration, the testing and monitoring of food samples have been stepped up in the country’s 64 districts, and food testing through mobile laboratories is being carried out as part of that.
Food samples are now being tested and monitored with mobile laboratories in eight metropolitan areas of the country; there are plans to extend the activity to all 64 districts in phases.
The activities are being run separately in two ways – through mobile courts led by executive magistrates, and under the supervision of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
In the current 2026-27 financial year, work is under way to procure 72 mobile laboratory vans under a project to enhance the capacity of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority.
Special arrangements have also been kept in the vans to make people aware of food safety; awareness videos on safe food are shown on a monitor fitted on the outside.
Food Minister Afroza Khanam, Chief Whip Nurul Islam, State Minister for Food Abdul Bari, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister A B M Abdus Sattar, Public Administration Secretary Kamruzzaman Chowdhury and senior officials of the food ministry, among others, accompanied him during the visit.
