The High Court (HC) has ordered the Bangladesh Standard Testing Institute (BSTI) to test milk samples for antibiotics in four laboratories.

The bench of Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Iqbal Kabir gave the order on Sunday (Jul 14) during a writ hearing.

The government agency, meanwhile, said it does not have the capacity to test for antibiotics in pasteurized milk.

Responding to queries on whether the standard testing regulator had ever tested milk samples for antibiotics before the hearing started, BSTI counsel MR Hassan said that antibiotic may enter through various sources.

“Sometimes antibiotics are used to fatten up cattle. Prior to this BSTI didn’t have the parameter to test for antibiotics,” he said and added that a committee is being formed to test milk standards.

The court then ordered BSTI to conduct test of the pasteurised milk produced by all the 14 companies registered by the institution at four laboratories.

The organisation has been ordered to carry out the tests at: Institute of Public Health (IPH), International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDRB), Feed and Food Safety Laboratory under Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, and Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (BCSIR).

The HC bench ordered the lab reports to be submitted on July 23.

A group of researchers led by Professor ABM Faroque, immediate past director of the Dhaka University’s Biomedical Research Centre, claimed that antibiotics, detergent, coliform bacteria and other forms of hazardous materials were found in pasteurized milk products.  

The research centre, on Saturday (Jul 13) claimed to have found another new antibiotic in a fresh research.