AKANDA MUHAMMAD JAHID

The use of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution’s (BSTI) standardisation mark has been made mandatory for 36 new products, including LPG cylinders, pressure cookers, microwave ovens and sweetmeats.

The BSTI has taken the move to ensure the quality of the products and consumers’ rights.

However, it created dismay among those who run small-scale operation to produce such products.

Among them are the sweetmeat makers, who opine that it would lead to them being harassed and impede their business.

Other products include green tea and malt-based food, chutneys, soy sauce, decorated cake, curd (chhana) and different types of cheese.

The list also contains beauty products such as hair creams, kajal, face packs and different types of soaps, bitumen and bituminous products, cookstoves and cooking solutions and industrial safety helmets.

Hessian and textile jute bags, nonwoven wipes, silk fabrics, synthetic mosquito nets, towels, lead-acid batteries, uninterruptible power systems (UPS), single-phase small AC, electric motors and toothbrushes also need to have the mark.

The manufacturers must use the BSTI standardisation mark in labels or in the bodies of the products, the state-run agency said in a circular issued on September 25.

In another notification issued on the same date, the BSTI said it has also banned sale, distribution and commercial advertisement of products not produced as per the agency’s standards.

The watchdog for monitoring food items and manufacturing products also said the circulars would come into effect two months after their publication.

Md Reazul Haque, deputy director at the certification marks wing of the BSTI, said they have set standards for 4,200 products so far.

Of them, the mark is mandatory for 274 products, including the new ones, he said.

In order to use the standardisation mark or BSTI logo, the producers have to first get their product standards tested at the BSTI, he said.