Restaurants urged to meet global quality in foods

Restaurants in the country should strive to attain global standards by ensuring that they prepare safe and healthy dishes, the Chairman of Bangladesh Food Safety Authority Zakaria has said.

"KFC, Pizza Hut or Domino's Pizza are doing business in our country, but why can't our Sultan's Dine or Star Kabab go global? I want to see an environment where our food is world-class," he said while addressing a training programme on food preparation, sale and storage at Biam Auditorium in the capital's Eskaton yesterday.

As many as 200 restaurant workers from the capital attended the training hosted by the food safety regulator under a Jica project.

Addressing as the chief guest, Zakaria said restaurants must be aware that they serve safe and healthy foods to customers. "The food served by you should not cause foodborne diseases."

The training programme aims to enlighten the workers with fresh insights and efficiency, said the chairman, expressing his hope that the food served in the restaurants is better than the food at home.

Referring to a report by the World Health Organisation, he said 1 in every 10 people in the world falls sick from consuming unsafe food. Besides, 1.14 lakh people die of cancer every year in Bangladesh, the main cause of which is unsafe food.

Addressing as a special guest, Joint Secretary of Food Ministry Md Harun Ar Rashid called for raising food safety awareness among food suppliers and consumers in the country.

Food Safey Authority members Dr Mohammad Mostafa and Dr Mohammad Shoaib also spoke at the event with Md Akhter Mamun, secretary of the regulator and director of the Jica project, in the chair. Monitoring officer of the regulator Imran Hossain Molla moderated the event.

Participating workers were trained on food preparation, serving, storage, transportation, labelling, food safety laws and regulations, waste management, personal hygiene, cleanliness, etc.

Later, masks, gloves, aprons and caps were distributed among them.