Even Footpath Pitha Stalls Must Now Register — Yet Many Street Food Sellers Have Never Heard of the New Rule

Sohel sells pitha and snacks from a tiny shop in a lane in Dhaka's Lalbagh. He opens in the morning and sells until the afternoon, and the shop's income runs his household. Yet he has no idea whether selling food now requires registration or a licence from the Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA).

Anwar, a food seller around the Dhaka University area, is in the same position. He earns his living selling food on the footpath and has no notion of whether his stall falls under any new rule. Raisul, a food seller in Azimpur, likewise does not know that running a food business now requires registration with the food safety authority.

Under the new regulations, however, everyone from temporary roadside food stalls to restaurants, bakeries, sweet shops, food manufacturers and specified categories of importers is being brought under registration or licensing. The Food Safety Authority says applications will start being accepted from November 1.

The stated aims of bringing a large share of the food trade under registration are to ensure safe food, build a database of businesses and widen the scope of oversight. But the ignorance of sellers on the ground raises questions at the very start of implementation. If small footpath traders do not clearly know how to register, what documents they need, how to apply and what happens if they fail to comply, the new rules could create fresh complications for them.

Officials of the Food Safety Authority say there will be no raids or punishments at the outset. The first phase will be awareness-raising — campaigns, leaflet distribution and media publicity — followed by a set period for traders to prepare. Only after that period ends are enforcement drives planned.

The 'Safe Food (Registration and Licensing) Regulations, 2026', framed under the Safe Food Act, 2013, were published in the government gazette on July 16. The regulations make registration and licensing mandatory for specified classes of food businesses and food products.

Sixteen categories of food businesses and establishments are covered by the registration provision, including restaurants, bakeries, pastry shops, fruit juice shops, catering services, sweet shops, dairy product manufacturers and packaged food producers. Wholesale grocery food businesses, food warehouses and cold storage facilities, and specified classes of food import, production, processing, storage, export and marketing activities will also come under the system.

Temporary and mobile vendors selling pitha, puri, peyaju and other foods by the roadside will have to register as well. That means the smallest traders, who until now sold directly to local customers largely outside any formal system, must now familiarise themselves with the new framework.

Separately, licensing provisions apply to specified businesses dealing in specialised food products — their production, processing, storage, import and marketing. These include health-supporting and supplementary foods, special dietary foods, foods for special medical purposes, probiotic and prebiotic foods and nutraceuticals. Rules also apply to infant formula and foods made for people with specific diseases. In other words, not every food business needs the same approval: depending on the type of business and product category, traders will need either registration or a licence.

An important feature of the new regulations is that first-time registration for the 16 conventional categories of food business is free. Fees do apply to licences for specialised food products. Premises licence fees are set by the size of the establishment: Tk 10,000 for a new licence for premises of 100 square metres or less, rising to Tk 60,000 for establishments larger than 10,000 square metres.

Applications for registration must use the prescribed Form 5.1, and licence applications the applicable Forms 6.1, 7.1, 8.1 and 9.1. Initially, applications can be filed at the Food Safety Authority's district offices, with plans to move the process fully online in phases. Every packaged food product must also carry the BFSA registration number on its packaging, allowing consumers to verify registration information and use the number when lodging complaints.

Imran Hossain Molla, a monitoring officer of the Food Safety Authority, said informing traders about the law before enforcing the new regulations is a priority. Campaigns, leaflet distribution and media publicity are planned so traders learn the registration rules, the application process and their obligations. After the awareness phase, traders will be given a set time to prepare, and enforcement drives will follow — awareness first, compulsion later.

Md Anwarul Islam Sarkar, the authority's member for law and policy, said a key purpose of expanding food business registration is to bring establishments onto a single list. Especially for small businesses such as footpath food stalls, which have never been properly included in oversight, the initiative could play an important role in preserving information. With registration, he said, the authority will know what kinds of food businesses operate in which areas, along with their identities and locations — making it easier to investigate food safety complaints, conduct oversight and take necessary action.

Yet the practical questions remain just as important. How simple the registration process will be for footpath micro-traders, what identity documents they will need, how the addresses of temporary stalls or mobile vendors will be recorded, and how regular oversight will work after registration all need clarity. Before applications open on November 1, thousands of small food sellers like Sohel and Anwar will be watching to see how much of that clarity the authority's awareness campaign can deliver.