Inedible oil flows to Kochi

Kochi: With Onam just a couple of weeks away come rep­orts that huge quantities of inedible and discarded oil from Tamil Nadu is  being widely used  to make the snacks so much in demand during the festival  in bakeries and eateries across the city.

The oil transported on trains is allegedly sold to the eateries for as little as Rs. 30 a litre, and so  usually has many buyers. 

“Except a few, all other bakeries and eateries in the city  no longer prepare their own snacks , but buy them in bulk from catering centres like those in Palluruthy, Edappally and Vypeen, which generously use the cheap oil. And as there is no mechanism to monitor their hygiene  or the ingredients they use they get away with it,” said a trader, adding that the oil trade lobby does brisk business during the festival season, when  chips and fried snacks fly off the shelves of eateries.

“With Onam  just a couple of weeks away, there  is a boom in the sale of chips. The authorities need to take stringent measures to prevent the use of substandard cooking oil for making them and other delicacies,” underlined CPM councillor in the corporation council,  P. S. Prakash.

While food safety officers and the corporation’s health department appear to be  turning a blind eye to the major public heal­th hazard that the sale of such eatables constitutes,  district food safety officer,  Ajith Ku­mar, when contacted, clai­med he had received no complaints about substandard oil being used by catering centres in the city.

“Although we’ve not re­c­eived any reports about substandard oil arriving in Kerala, we will do an intensive check at railway stations and other entry points,” he promised.