Madurai: Ahead of the Diwali festival, the Madurai district food safety officials have started cracking the whip against those who sell adulterated and sub-standard cooking oil in the city. As many as 63 samples of oil, suspected to be adulterated, were taken from various shops. The samples have been sent for testing and the results are expected on Monday.
The officials searched around 50 shops in East Masi Street on Friday for adulterated cooking oil and those sold as ‘cold pressed’ oil. They were taken aback by the cheap pricing of the oil. “Groundnut oil and gingelly oil are sold as cold pressed oil at a cheaper price in the market. Pure cold pressed gingelly oil cannot be sold at a price less than Rs 480, but it is sold far less than half of its price,” food safety officials said.
Designated officer for food safety Dr M Somasundaram said that a total of 63 samples were taken from 23 shops in East Masi Street. Necessary action will be taken against the offenders after getting the laboratory results. The inspection will continue in Madurai. However, he said that it would be a daunting task for them to check all the shops. He urged people not to buy oil sold at cheaper price, as it would be encouraging the traders who sell adulterated oil.
Food safety officials had in the past unearthed a few factories, where adulterated oil was manufactured illegally. Officials said that palmolein oil, which is cheaper, is being mixed with other oils to sell at a lesser price.
The officials also found a few factories, where groundnut oil was ‘made’ by mixing groundnut oil essence with palmolein oil. Although there are no immediate health problems in using palmolein, people may consume it in large quantity mistaking it for original groundnut oil, which is not good for health, officials said.
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