Steps against traders of cooking oil not fortified with vitamin A

The government has moved to strictly enforce a law that makes it mandatory to fortify all cooking oil with vitamin A.

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu instructed businesses to remove the current supplies of edible oil that do not contain vitamin A.

Amu gave the order at a recent workshop on rules and regulations of the Edible Oil Fortification with Vitamin A Act-2013.  At the workshop, he gave a 72-hour deadline to the brands to remove their unfortified products from the market.

He said legal steps would be taken if edible oil not enriched with vitamin A is found in the market after the deadline passes.

The fresh order comes as some major companies are yet to fortify their products though the law was passed in November 2013. Amu also instructed the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) to conduct special drive to ensure the compliance after the deadline passes.

Top officials of refiners, edible oil businesses, importers and law enforcement agencies were present at the workshop held at the office of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Amu said fortification of edible oil with vitamin A is an international movement and the government has passed the law to ensure it at the consumer level.

The law also prohibits import, sales, marketing and display of unfortified edible oil.

Officials of Bangladesh Edible Oil Ltd, whose brands include Rupchanda and Meizan, said they were the first company in the country to have complied with the law from day one.

“Besides, we have carried out awareness programmes for retailers about the law,” said Shoeb Md Asaduzzaman, head of sales and marketing of the company.

Fortifying all kinds of edible oil sold in Bangladesh might not be easy for the government. 

About 60-70 percent of the edible oil is non-branded, according to FBCCI President Abdul Matlub Ahmad.

If they are spared, the initiative of fortifying bottled and branded edible oil with vitamin A will not yield the desired result, he said at the workshop.

The importers who buy non-branded oil from abroad have to be included in the initiative as well, Ahmad added. Companies must have their brands tested at the BSTI, according to rules. If the brands pass the tests, companies will mention it on the label of the bottles saying they are fortified.

Brands with fortified oil will have BDS 1769 on their label, while non-fortified ones will have BDS 909.  

In Bangladesh, vitamin A deficiency has been documented as a public health problem since 1960s and has been identified as the single most important preventable cause of night blindness in children.

Over the past 25 years, Bangladesh has been implementing a national vitamin A supplementation programme targeting children of 9-59 months of age.

Among other factors, vitamin A supplementation has contributed to the progress made in millennium development goal 4: reduction of infant and young child mortality -- and to a significant reduction of severe forms of vitamin A deficiency.

To complement vitamin A supplementation and increase its intake among mothers, children aged 6-8 months, older children and all other population groups, the need for a sustainable approach that increases dietary vitamin A ingestion in Bangladesh cannot be overemphasised, according to the Unicef. Fortification of staple foods is a highly efficient and cost-effective way to address micronutrient deficiencies at scale.

In case of vitamin A, edible oil is the most cost-effective food vehicle, said the UN agency that assisted Bangladesh in formulating the law.

It said malnutrition in Bangladesh exists in all age groups but the most vulnerable are infants and young children, as well as adolescents and pregnant and lactating women.