The cabinet Monday approved the draft of Pure Food Act 2013 with a provision of maximum 5 years’ jail term and a penalty of Tk 500,000.
“The cabinet approved the draft with the vetting of the law ministry. It will now be sent to the parliament for passage,” Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said after Monday’s cabinet meeting.
The parliament will go into next session on September 12. If passed into a law, the Pure Food Act 2013 will replace the Pure food Ordinance, 1969.
The prison sentence and penalty will be doubled for repeat offenders, says the draft prepared by the food ministry and approved in principle on July 1.
The draft provides that the government will constitute Bangladesh Pure Food Authority which will be responsible for examining the quality of food items, testing samples, stopping production and sales of contaminated and adulterated food items and taking legal actions against unscrupulous traders and producers.
An advisory council and several technical committees and panels will be formed to assist the authority in containing food adulteration and mixing toxic chemicals in food items.
The authority will be empowered to visit packaging places and test food items.
The cabinet secretary said minor offences will be tried at mobile courts and major violation of the law will be tried at general tribunals.
Special food safety tribunals will also be constituted under the proposed law, he said.
The cabinet, in its meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair, also approved the draft of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies Act, 2013 widening its board and empowering it to set up branches in different places of the country.
The institute is governed by a 1984 ordinance, proclaimed by the then military government, which has become ineffective because of a High Court verdict, necessitating a new law, the cabinet secretary explained.