"We shall hold a meeting with the agriculture, food, environment, and home ministries in presence of the media to take appropriate decisions," the minister told journalists at a dialogue while inaugurating the Computer Network Project of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management at the ministry's conference room.

Terming the food adulteration situation as "alarming", Chowdhury Kamal said, "It is more true for what we call 'fast food'."

More than 50 people including Deputy Minister for Land Ruhul Quddus Talukder Dulu reportedly fell sick after having fast food at the annual general meeting of Bangladesh Samabay Bank on June 25.

The bank's Deputy General Manager BK Patwari filed a case on Tuesday with the Paltan Police Station against the food shop, Food Plus, at the Sena Kalyan Bhaban, which had supplied the fast food. The police arrested the manager and two staff of the shop.

A series of investigative reports by The Daily Star also found cases of serious food adulteration and use of chemicals in it, which the experts consider a serious threat to the public health.

Talking to the journalists on the computer network system, Kamal said the network, set up in 92 offices of the ministry including those at the district levels, will have all the information on food procurement, reserve and dispatch, which will ensure the food security system in the country.

"Previously it would take minimum 7-15 days to prepare and send any report on food reservation, average price or dispatch to the policy makers, but now the networking will make the whole process possible in a very short time," he said.

The government will now be able to combat immediately any crisis including food shortage, price hike or natural disaster in any part of the country thanks to the easy access to information through the computer network system, said Abdur Rouf, project director of the Computer Network System.

Analysis of food price of previous years, comparing the present reserve with those of the previous ones will also help the policy makers formulate new policies in the wake of new crises, he told the journalists explaining the functions of the system.

The project was implemented at a cost of Tk 6.21 crore and ended on June 10 this year. The food ministry is consulting with other ministries to extend the project, Rouf noted.

On the recent price hike of rice despite a bumper boro harvest this year, the food minister said the procurement price fixed at Tk 14.50 this year is an all-time high, which might have contributed to the price hike. The government price for rice procurement last year was Tk 13.25 a kg.

"We also want that the farmers get a reasonable price," the minister said. The price in the rural markets and other divisions, however, is much less than that in Dhaka, he claimed.

The amount of food reserve in the country is now 808,000 metric tons, and the government has already purchased 6 lakh metric tons of the targeted 10 lakh metric tons of rice. The remaining 4 lakh metric tons will be procured within August, the minister said.

Md Fazlur Rahman, acting secretary of the food ministry, and other officials were present at the dialogue.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Food Planning and Monitoring Committee on food procurement held at the ministry earlier yesterday also expressed satisfaction over the present procurement situation, a ministry official said.

The meeting observed that the government does not need to increase the procurement price at present as it may add to the present price hike, he said.