Bangladesh has sought technical assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to establish state-of-the-art food-testing laboratories across all 64 districts, as the government accelerates efforts to guarantee food safety and eradicate widespread adulteration.
Ismail Zabihullah, Adviser on Public Administration to the Prime Minister, formally presented the proposal during a high-level meeting with a six-member JICA delegation led by Takahashi Junko, Chief Representative of JICA’s Bangladesh office, on Thursday.
The two sides held extensive discussions on public health protection, tackling foodborne illnesses, modernising food safety governance, and expanding technical capacity across the country. Zabihullah underscored that ensuring safe, unadulterated food across the national supply chain remains a core governance commitment, with immediate measures underway to halt the production and marketing of counterfeit and sub-standard food products.
To support this mandate, the government is bolstering the operational capacity of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) and the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) through recruitment drives, intensified field monitoring, and stricter legal enforcement.
Highlighting the need for JICA’s technical support for the district-level laboratory network, Zabihullah stressed that aligning domestic food safety practices with rigorous international standards is critical to boosting the global competitiveness and acceptability of Bangladeshi agri-food exports.
In response, Takahashi Junko recommended streamlining Bangladesh’s existing food safety laws to create a more coherent, integrated regulatory framework. She advocated for a single-window licensing system for all food businesses to simplify compliance and improve oversight.
Takahashi noted that JICA is already funding and constructing three international-standard laboratories across the Dhaka, Chattogram, and Khulna divisions. She emphasised that a robust food safety architecture requires specialized technical expertise, accredited testing facilities, and an efficient nationwide mechanism for sample collection.
To ensure science- and risk-based inspection of food establishments, JICA recommended scaling up the deployment of trained food safety inspectors at the district level. Takahashi expressed JICA’s readiness to provide technical training programmes for inspectors, helping to build a resilient, nationwide shield against adulteration.
