A mobile court, led by magistrate ABM Abdul Fattah, raided three bakeries and three small restaurants on Kuril Bishaw road yesterday, fining them Tk 71,000 for unhygienic environments and for using unsafe chemicals.

The court collected Tk 20,000 each from Monihar bakery, Selina bakery and Apurba bakery.

"Not only is the environment unhygienic, but they never mention the expiry date on the label of the packets," said ABM Abdul Fattah.

The court then raided three small roadside restaurants, fining them a total of Tk 11,000 for preserving and preparing food in very unhygienic environment.

The second mobile court, led by magistrate Md. Rokanuddoulla, raided two bakeries in old Dhaka.

"In the Anando bakery we did not find any unsafe chemicals and the environment was not so bad," said Rokanuddoulla.

The court did not file any case against the owner of the Anando bakery.

The court then raided City Bakery, where they found a lot of unsafe chemicals in their factory, situated at Abul Hasnat road.

The court sent Sheikh Anawar Hossain, the owner of the bakery, to jail for one month and fined him Tk one thousand.

"They use oily chemicals to make the chanachur and Zilapi crispy," the magistrate said. They also use unknown chemicals in their products, he added.

The magistrate court of the City Corporation did not conduct any raids yesterday.

BSTI makes a probe committee
The Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) has instituted a three-member committee to investigate so-called fruit juices that lack fruit ingredients, exposed recently by a non-government watchdog of consumers rights.

The survey findings of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) showed that 'fruit juices' of different brands carrying a BSTI certification in the market contained various harmful chemical ingredients such as colouring, flavouring and preservatives beyond the permitted level, instead of fruit ingredients.

The probe committee, led by a BSTI Field Officer KM Hanif, has no time limit for submission of its findings in this regard.

Drive in other districts
The special mobile court branch of the police has apprehended 360 bags full of rotten wheat intended for use in flourmills. The magistrate, checking the receipt of the wheat, found they were officially cattle feed. But there is no cattle feed mill in that area. The dishonest traders were trying to release them in to a flourmill.

The police arrested a storage owner, Monirul Haq Titu, in this regard. Sources said a group of dishonest traders have been running this sort of business for a long time.

Our Chittagong office adds:

A mobile court here yesterday fined four renowned companies Tk three lakh and twenty-eight thousand for making sub-standard food products in a very unhygienic atmosphere in the port city.

Chittagong City Corporation Magistrate Shafiqur Rahman, with the help of BSTI representatives and police forces, conducted the mobile court raid at the food products factories of Panda Ice-cream, Dynasty - a bakery trusted for confectionery items - Daffodils Food Products and Purabi Sweets.

The factories of all the fined companies were located at the city centre under Kotoali thana. None had any BSTI certificate for their products.

Of them, Panda was fined Tk 1 lakh 80 thousand as the mobile court during the raid at Batali Road found expired milk powder and other raw materials left in a most unhygienic condition. Panda has been producing food items without a BSTI certificate since its establishment in 1991. The latest application for a BSTI certificate of Panda was rejected in 2003 for substandard products. However, the company continued its production.

The court fined Dynasty Tk 71 thousand for preparing substandard confectionery items in an unhygienic condition.

Daffodils Food Products - a company supplying products to the trains on the Chittagong-Dhaka and Chittagong-Sylhet section of Bangladesh Railway, was fined Tk 46 thousand. The court found slaughtered and undressed chickens and creams preserved together inside Daffodil's factory at Chaitanya Goli.

The court fined Purabi Sweets of Station Road for poor quality and unhygienic products.