The Safe Food Court has issued arrest warrants against top executives of Nestlé Bangladesh, Meghna Group, and SA Group over allegations of selling adulterated and substandard food products.
Magistrate Nusrat Sahara Bithi issued the warrants on Monday (24 November) for Nestlé Bangladesh Managing Director Deepal Abeywickrema and Public Policy Manager Riashad Jaman; Meghna Group Chairman Mostafa Kamal; and SA Group Chairman Md Shahabuddin Alam. The action followed applications submitted by Kamrul Hasan, a safe food inspector at Dhaka South City Corporation, reported Bagladesh news portal The Business Standard.
The Bangladesh Food Safety Authority confirmed the filing of the cases and the issuance of the warrants. The next hearing is scheduled for 15 December.
Nestlé Bangladesh
Nestlé Bangladesh has defended itself, stating it imports KitKat chocolates from Dubai following proper procedures and has described the court order as “harassment.” Debabrata Roy Chowdhury, Nestlé Bangladesh’s Director of Corporate Affairs, said, “The BSTI has not yet established testing standards for KitKat. We comply with the Safe Food Act, and after submitting explanations, the complainant misled the court to secure this order.”
The case stems from tests on KitKat samples collected from a Shwapno outlet on 10 November. According to the complaint, the chocolates were found to be of low quality and adulterated, allegedly sold without BSTI approval.
Meghna Group
The complaint also targets Meghna Group’s Fresh Refined Sugar. Samples collected from a Shwapno outlet in Bashabo were tested by the Food Safety Authority. Results showed moisture content at 2.70% instead of the minimum required 8%, sucrose content at 77.35% instead of 99.7%, and 0.08 ppm of sulphur dioxide, exceeding safe limits.
SA Group
SA Group’s Goalini Full Cream Milk Powder was found to contain only 7.58% milk fat and 9.5% protein, far below the standard requirements of 42% fat and 34% protein, despite being labelled “full cream.”
Food Safety Authority Statement
Zakaria, chairman of the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority, said the agency regularly collects and tests products to prevent adulteration. “Around 150 samples are tested every month. Products failing to meet standards are monitored and legal action is taken if they do not improve,” he explained.
Kamrul Hasan, the plaintiff, told TBS, “When we find suspicious products during inspections, we send them to labs. Our tests confirmed KitKat and Fresh Refined Sugar were substandard and unsafe, which prompted the court to issue these orders.”
