The Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) has banned the sale, distribution, storing and commercial advertising of 17 products of 12 companies.
BSTI has served show-cause notices to all of the companies over their substandard items, said a BSTI handout on Saturday.
Manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers and retailers of these products were instructed to stop trading until the respective companies obtained new licences. Any advertising of these products have also been prohibited.
BSTI has directed the companies to recall their products from the market.
A BSTI surveillance team examined samples, related to Iftar and Sehri items, collected from the open market and confirmed the 17 products as 'substandard goods', according to the handout.
The government organisation has so far examined 253 products out of a total of 521 samples collected from different markets in different districts in the last two months.
It found 236 products as maintaining standards, while 17 were found to be substandard. The testing of 268 samples is yet underway.
The substandard products and companies are: AP-1 Ghee of Kalpana Commodities and Ankor Semolina of Chattogram Flour Ltd in Chitagong, Al Amin Chocolate of Al Amin Bakery and Confectionery in Jessore, Mr Baker Biscuit of Mr Baker Pastry Shop in Dhaka, Saba Potato Chips of Safe Food Industries in Faridpur, Bango Salt of Ryad Salt Industries in Cox's Bazar, RM Ghee of Rajshahi Mistanno Vander, Special Brand Ghee, Soyabean Oil, Turmeric Powder of Genius Safe Food and Consumers and Sima Semolina of Sima Flour Mills Ltd in Bogra, AB-1 Butter Oil Raja Brand's Ghee of GM Food Products and Noorjahan Brand Butter of Shah International Food Product in Gazipur, Best-1 Brand Ghee of Mother Dairy and Food Product in Shariatpur, Shomshernagar Shahi Brand Ghee of Shahi Food Product in Moulvibazar and an unidentified soybean oil.