Registration mandatory for food businesses, pitha-peyaju shops, restaurants

Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA) is bringing 16 specified categories of food businesses under the registration system, ranging from roadside pitha, puri-peyaju shops to restaurants, bakeries and sweet shops. Applications for registration and licences can be made from November 1 next. Operating business without registration or licence in the specified cases will be considered a punishable offence.

This information was given in a press release of BFSA on Wednesday (October 21).

This provision has been kept in the ‘Safe Food (Registration and Licence) Regulations, 2026’ published in the government gazette on July 16. Under the new rules arrangements have been made for registration of food businesses, business licences, establishment licences, licences for food production and import, and registration of licensed products.

According to the regulations, restaurants, bakeries, fruit juice shops, pastry shops, catering establishments, packaged food producers, sweet shops, dairy product manufacturers and importers of specified food products will have to take registration. Besides, wholesale grocery businesses, food storage facilities, cold storages and specified businesses related to production of edible oil and edible salt are also on this list. Roadside pitha, puri and peyaju shops will also not remain outside registration.

On the other hand, applicable licences will have to be taken in the case of production, processing, storage, import and marketing of specialised food products. Various specialised food products including health supplements and complementary foods, special diets, probiotic and prebiotic foods and nutraceuticals will come under this system. Infant formula milk and special foods prepared for the elderly or persons suffering from specific diseases are also included in it.

Besides, registration or licence will have to be taken according to the relevant provisions in the case of genetically modified or altered food, organic food, irradiated food, fortified food and novel food. In the case of foods marketed with claims of health benefits or reducing the risk of diseases, the ‘Safe Food (Advertisement and Claim) Regulations, 2025’ will have to be followed.

BFSA has informed that applications for registration and licences will have to be made by paying the specified fees and fulfilling the conditions. Their validity will be for three years. They will have to be renewed after the expiry of the term. The first-time registration of the specified 16 categories of food businesses will be done free of cost.

However the establishment licence fees for specialised food product manufacturing establishments have been fixed according to the area. The fee for establishments with an area of 100 square metres or less is Tk 10,000. The fee for a new licence for establishments with an area of more than 10,000 square metres is Tk 60,000.

Under the new system the BFSA registration number will have to be mentioned on the packet of every food product. Through this consumers will be able to know about the registration of the concerned establishment by looking at the packet. Any complaint can also be informed by mentioning the registration number.

In the initial stage applications for registration and licences can be made at the concerned district offices of the Food Safety Authority. There is a plan to introduce 100 per cent online applications in phases later.

The authority has informed that operating food businesses for which registration or licence is mandatory without it is a punishable offence according to the relevant provisions of the Safe Food Act, 2013. For this reason the concerned businessmen and establishments have been asked to complete the preparations for taking the necessary registration and licences within the specified time.

According to BFSA, through the new system the activities of ensuring transparency and accountability in the food business, bringing discipline in production and marketing, and ensuring safe food for the protection of public health will become more effective.