BSTI asked to get SMIIC membership

The Ministry of Industries has asked Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) to get global accreditation for halal certificate, conformity assessment and assistances on economic growth as a member of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC).

As most of the OIC member countries are the members of the SMIIC the country will get training and updated information on international standard of the halal testing status easily, said the ministry.

Additionally halal certificates of BSTI will be recognized in the global market. To ensure the membership BSTI has to pay $34,083.14 or around Tk32 Lakh annually from its own fund, a directive of the ministry said.

The technical committee of ‘Halal Food Products’ under BSTI has adopted the three standards of SMIIC as Bangladesh Standard.

The three standards are: General Requirements for Halal Food, Conformity Assessment- Requirements for Bodies Providing Halal Certification and General Requirement for Food Additives and other added Chemicals to Halal Food.

Earlier, 13 BSTI officials took up training on halal issues from SMIIC and they evaluated their knowledge on global halal standards while formulating the local standards and giving certificates, it said.

BSTI has included activities of issuing halal certificates since September 2019 and started issuing halal certificates for varied products from March this year to expand domestic export trading.

“The SMIIC is an intergovernmental regional standardization organisation aimed at realizing common standards, achieving uniformity in metrology, laboratory testing and establishing conformity assessment schemes for the purpose of expediting exchange of materials, manufactured goods and products in the Muslim World under the umbrella of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation,” it said.