Food businesses ranging from roadside pitha and piyaju stalls to restaurants, bakeries, importers, cold storages and packaged-food manufacturers will have to register with the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) from 1 November under a new regulatory regime covering 16 categories of operators.
The rules also impose separate licensing requirements on specialised food businesses, with food-business licences and, in some cases, premises licences required depending on the products being produced, processed, stored, imported or marketed.
The Safe Food (Registration and Licensing) Regulations, 2026 were published in the government gazette on 16 July.
BFSA said on Wednesday that businesses covered by the rules can apply for registration and applicable licences from 1 November.
The broadest registration category covers businesses preparing or serving ready-to-eat food, including restaurants, bakeries, fruit juice and beverage outlets, pitha, puli, puri and piyaju sellers, fast-food businesses and catering services.
Registration will also be mandatory for all packaged-food production and processing, ice-cream and dairy-product manufacturing and processing, sweet-making factories and shops and wholesale grocery food businesses.
Food imports will also require registration, except imports of raw and fresh food and food brought in for personal use. Privately operated food warehouses, storage facilities and cold storages are also covered.
Businesses engaged in the wholesale or commercial production, processing, storage, import and marketing of edible oil and edible salt are included as separate categories.
The registration list also covers special foods, including food for infants and products made specifically for elderly people or people with particular diseases, as well as fortified food.
Health-supporting or supplementary foods, food for special dietary use, food for special medical purposes and prebiotic and probiotic products are also subject to registration when they are produced, processed, stored, imported or exported and marketed.
Another category covers genetically modified or altered food, organic food, irradiated food, proprietary food, novel food and functional food.
Multi-stage processed foods such as dried fish, gur, pumpkin bori and sweets are also included, along with the wholesale or commercial production and handling of food additives and foods marketed with health-supporting or disease-risk-reduction claims.
Registration, however, is not the only requirement for specialised food businesses.
Food-business licences will be mandatory for businesses producing, processing, storing, importing or marketing health-supporting or supplementary foods, food for special dietary or medical use, prebiotic and probiotic products, nutraceuticals and similar foods.
The same licensing requirement applies to businesses dealing in genetically modified or altered food, organic food, irradiated food, proprietary food, novel food and functional food.
Fortified-food businesses are also covered by the licensing regime. However, businesses that already hold a licence, registration or approval for such food under another existing law or related rules will be exempt from the corresponding food-business licence, production or import licence and product-registration requirements under the new regulations.
Specialised food businesses may also require separate premises licences.
Those rules cover health-supporting or supplementary foods, special dietary and medical foods, prebiotic and probiotic products, nutraceuticals, genetically modified or altered food, organic food, irradiated food, proprietary food, novel food, functional food and fortified food.
Foods marketed with health-supporting or disease-risk-reduction claims are also covered by the premises-licensing rules, although exemptions apply where comparable approval has already been obtained under another law.
BFSA’s document refers to the Safe Food (Advertisement and Claims) Regulations, 2023 for such health-related claims.
First-time registration will be free for the 16 specified categories of food businesses, according to BFSA.
For specialised food-product manufacturers, premises-licence fees will depend on the size of the facility. A premises of up to 100 square metres will pay Tk10,000 for a new licence, while one exceeding 10,000 square metres will pay Tk60,000.
Registrations and licences will remain valid for three years and must be renewed after expiry.
Packaged food products will also have to display the BFSA registration number of the relevant business, allowing consumers to identify registered operators and cite the number when filing complaints.
Applications will initially be accepted through BFSA district offices, with the authority planning to move the process gradually to a fully online system.
Under the Safe Food Act, 2013, operating without required registration or licensing is punishable where such approval is mandatory.
