May 31, 2018
21 oil brands banned in Kozhikode
Sale of coconut oil of 8 companies prohibited.
The Food Safety Department bans the sale of 21 coconut oil brands distributed in Kozhikode and neighbouring districts.
KOZHIKODE: The Department of Food Safety has benned the sale of 21 coconut oil brands of 8 companies distributed in the district and neighbouring districts as all the stuff proved of substandard quality in lab tests. Issued under Section 36, 3 (b) of Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, the order was issued on May 23 by P.K.Aleyamma, assistant food safety commissioner, Kozhikode. The companies are based at Kozhikode (five) and Palakkad districts (three).
The high price of coconut oil made the shopkeepers to push in low-cost coconut oil brands as the companies provide better margin to shopkeepers. Since palm oil is available for Rs 60-80 per litre, one can easily adulterate coconut oil reaping huge benefits, as coconut oil price touched an all-time high of over Rs 200 per litre recently, say experts.
The coconut oil brands includes SK's Drop of Nature Ayush, Sree Keerthi, Kelda (by Sreekrishna Flour and Oil Mill, Cheruvannur, Kozhikode) Keral, Vismaya, AS Coconut Oil (AS Oil Mill, Big Bazaar, Kozhikode), PVS Thripthi Pure Coconut Oil, Kavery Brand (Aswathi Oil and Flour Bill, Beypore, Kozhikode), Coco Menma, Agro Brand, (Vishnu Oil Mills, Palakkad), Kera Valley, Famous, Kera Special (Alfa Coconut Oil Mills, Govindapuram, Palakkad), Harita Giri, Annappoorna (Geetha Oil Mills, Narikkuni , Kozhikode) and Orange, Janasree, Keranice and Malabar Supreme (Pavangad Oil Mill, Kozhikode).
Food safety assistant commissioner Aleyamma told DC that her team had collected more than 50 samples from various shops in the district of which 21 brands of eight companies were prohibited in the district.Chemical examination proved that the brands are of inferior quality,.
Contaminants making their way into food-contact items
Broken laptop computer on a pile of electronic waste
Manufacturers are using recycled electrical equipment as a source of black plastic
Hazardous chemicals such as lead are finding their way into food-contact items and other everyday products because manufacturers are using recycled electrical equipment as a source of black plastic, a study has found.
The substances are among those applied to devices, such as laptops and music systems, as flame retardants and pigments but remain within the products when they reach the end of their useful lives.
Scientists at the University of Plymouth in the U.K. have shown that a combination of the growing demand for black plastic and the inefficient sorting of end-of-life electrical equipment is causing contaminated material to be introduced into the recyclate.
Threat to marine life
This is in part because despite black plastics constituting about 15% of the domestic waste stream, this waste material is not readily recycled owing to the low sensitivity of black pigments to near infrared radiation used in conventional plastic sorting facilities. As well as posing a threat to human health, the study showed that there are potentially harmful effects for the marine and coastal environment either through the spread of the products as litter or as microplastics.
Researchers used XRF spectrometry to assess the levels of a range of elements in more than 600 black plastic products such as food-contact items, storage, clothing, toys, jewellery, office items and new and old electronic and electrical equipment.
Bromine, in the form of brominated compounds, is and has been used in electrical plastic housings as a flame retardant, while lead is often encountered in electronic plastics as a contaminant. However, both elements were found extensively in non-electrical black consumer products tested, where they are not needed or desirable.
In many products, including cocktail stirrers, coathangers, various items of plastic jewellery, garden hosing, Christmas decorations and tool handles, concentrations of bromine potentially exceeded legal limits that are designed for electrical items.
In other products, including various toys, storage containers and office equipment, concentrations of lead exceeded its legal limit for electrical items. “There are environmental and health impacts arising from the production and use of plastics in general, but black plastics pose greater risks and hazards,” said Andrew Turner, University of Plymouth.
“This is due to the technical and economic constraints imposed on the efficient sorting and separation of black waste for recycling, coupled with the presence of harmful additives required for production or applications in the electronic and electrical equipment and food packaging sectors,” said Mr. Turner. “Black plastic may be aesthetically pleasing, but this study confirms that the recycling of plastic from e-waste is introducing harmful chemicals into consumer products,” he said.
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