‘Nalla ennai’ not ‘nallennai’: Govt cracks down on misbranding

Chennai: The state food safety department has directed oil manufacturing and packing units not to print the phrase ‘Nalla ennai’ on oil sachets or packets. Units in Tamil Nadu were found marketing inedible lamp oil as ‘Nalla ennai’ (implying good quality oil). However, the phrase by and large refers to edible gingelly or sesame oil in local retail markets.

A total of 277 outlets, mostly in the districts of Salem, Namakkal and Tirupur, were found selling inedible oil as edible oil, according to government records.

Samples were lifted from nearly 930 outlets recently by food safety officers (FSOs) across the state following complaints that there was rampant adulteration in edible oil sold at rural areas. Sincethe resultswere bothersome, an oil committee was constituted under the state food safety commissioner to look into the issue.This committee in November 2017 held a meeting with all FSOs where FSOs pointed out that both edible and inedible were being manufactured and sold in the same premises and the latter was misbranded as edible.

Following this, the committee released a set of guidelines for manufacturers and packers of both categories of oils, said commissioner P Amudha. Accordingly from January 2018, edible oil manufacturers were banned from printing details about taste, quality or health benefits on the wrapper since phrases like ‘super refined’, ‘extra or micro refined’, ‘cholesterol friendly’ and ‘saturated fat free’ were misleading consumers at times.

It is mandatory for inedible oil packers from now on to print a picture of a lamp on thewrappers legibly (occupying at least 30% of the total space) in order to make it clear that the product is not suitable for cooking and can be used only for lighting lamps. As far as edible oil is concerned, ISI-marked containers should notbeclosedwithlead soldering; repacking iscompletely banned.

FSOs were instructed to ensure that no one with skin diseases or communicable ones are employed in these units. Officials have been directedtobe vigilant aboutfrequent change of addresses by repackers and relabellers to evade legal action and take necessary legal action under the provisions of theFSS Act.

Food operators have also been instructed not to stock edible and inedible oil on the same racks, Amudha added. Long-termuseof adulterated edibleor cooking oil might result in a medical condition named epidemic dropsy, say medical experts.