A total of 57 hotels and restaurants in the city have been ranked 'A+' or 'A' on the basis of food safety and hygiene standards they are maintaining.
Bangladesh Food Safety Authority (BFSA), which is under the ministry of food, rated the eateries after inspecting overall food safety and hygienic condition in the hotels.
Food Minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder distributed food safety compliance certificates to the owners of these hotels and restaurants at a programme organised by the BFSA in the city on Sunday.
Speaking on the occasion, he urged them to maintain ethical standards and keep themselves away from greed for the betterment of consumers.
"You (hotel and restaurant owners) need to indulge in self-correction. Do your business with honesty and remain careful about food safety and hygiene," he said.
In April last year, the BFSA started a drive to monitor whether the eateries in the capital are in compliance with the food safety rules.
Since then the BFSA teams inspected some 200 hotels and restaurants located in Motijheel, Dilkusha, Purana Paltan, Gulistan, Fakirapool, National Press Club and the secretariat areas.
They ranked the hotels and restaurants in different categories after examining their overall food safety and hygienic conditions.
A total of 57 eateries were given 'A+' ratings meaning Green or Excellent category or 'A' ratings meaning Blue or Good category.
The 'A+' eateries have achieved grade points between 90 and 100 while 'A' category ones earned points between 80 and 90 based on specific criterion set by the BFSA.
The BFSA gave the points for compliance with various issues such as valid licence, visibility of the kitchen condition to the customers, traceability to the source of procuring raw materials, keeping money receipts of purchasing products, power and drainage system, temperature condition and cleanliness of restaurants staffs.
The restaurants that earned grade-point between 60 and 79 are being treated as 'B' (Yellow category) while those who got grade-point below 59 are ranked 'C' (Orange category).
According to the BFSA, the 'B' category hotel/restaurants must improve their standards within the next three months and 'C' category ones by one month. Otherwise, they will face closure of their businesses.
The food minister warned that the hotel and restaurants owners that got the certification from BFSA must maintain their high standards.
"We will monitor you (hotel and restaurant owners) regularly so that you can maintain and improve your category further," he said.
If any hotel or restaurant fails to maintain its standards, they will be degraded.
The minister also said they will engage upazila food officers and sanitary inspectors to monitor safe food activities alongside their duties until fresh recruitment of manpower in the BFSA.
Mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Sayeed Khokon suggested introducing monitoring system at the food processing level as well.
Chairman of BFSA Mohammad Mahfuzul Hoque said that they will roll out apps within the next few days to enable consumers to identify hotels and restaurants complying with food safety rules.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association M Rezaul Karim Sarkar Robin said they would cooperate with the government in ensuring food safety.
The eateries that were placed in 'A+' category include Fars Hotel and Resorts, Hotel Kasturi, Handy hotel, Al Qadiria Hotel and Restaurant, Kinnori Restaurant, Asia Hotel and Restaurant, Hotel Purbani International, West Restaurant, Burger King, The Rajdhani Hotel, Hirajeel Hotel and Hajrat Shah Chandrapuri Hotel.
The 'A'-category restaurants include Cafe Maula, New Cafe Jamuna, New Danshiri Restaurant, Cafe Bismillah, New Mogul Darbar Restaurant, New Cafe Dilkusha and New Cafe Motijheel, GFC hotel, KFC (Purana Paltan), Classic Food Lab, Bhojon, Myori were labelled as 'A' category.
Member of BFSA Md Mahbub Kabir delivered the welcome address while food secretary Shahabuddin Ahmed presided over the event.
Former food minister Advocate Qamrul Islam and leaders of BROA were also present.
