CHECK YOUR OIL OR END UP IN THE FRYING PAN

Fudged Labels, Low Costs Attract People To Non-Edible Oil, Says Food Safety Department

The colourful packs of gingelly oil that cost nearly less than half of the branded ones are not for cooking and its consumption can be injurious to health. Ahead of the festive season, food safety officials are holding talks with oil manufacturers and vendors, conducting raids and lifting samples from across the state for tests.

“Non-edible oil does not come under food safety department but our officials are now looking into this as many people use this oil for cooking. There are labelling defects and the low cost attracts people,” said Tamil Nadu food safety director and additional commissioner Dr K Vanaja.

Preliminary reports of tests done in labs ahead of the festival season suggest this is palm oil mixed with chemicals and dye to give it the colour and odour of fresh gingelly oil. But if this oil is used for cooking, it can cause serious health hazards including digestive disorders and chemical poisoning. “We also found manufacturers preparing edible and non-edible oil on the same premises. It may increase risk of contamination of edible oil,” she said.

An oil committee formed by the government as per the directions of the Madras high court has listed out the dos and don’ts for manufacturers and re-packers of non-edible oil. The new guidelines, likely to come into effect next month, have already been circulated among manufacturers. The court had also insisted on some guidelines since non-edible items did not come under the purview of the Food Safety Act. “So far, there were no guidelines. Products were packed and stored in retail stores along with edible products. Since this oil isn’t pure, the cost is less compared to edible oil. People picked the bottles and packs for cooking,” she said.

The commission has recommended the use of a photograph of a traditional lamp, kuthuvellakku, on a violet pack with the words “not edible” on the front label. It has also insisted that directions of use be mentioned in Tamil and the not-edible tag be in the font-size of at least 10mm. The lamp symbol should cover at least 30% of the space. Among the don’ts, manufacturers should not use the vegetarian sign and the expiry or date of manufacture, or use the term ‘gingelly oil’. No food safety licence is required to manufacture these products and no FSSAI labels should be used, the guidelines said.

Manufacturers have been asked not to use the same assembly line for edible and non-edible oil and ensure the health of workers is good and that they are free from skin diseases.

UNSAFE | Reusing oil to deepfry food items has adverse health effects

Efforts on to convert used oil into biodiesel

Reuse of cooking oil can cause hypertension, Alzheimer’s, heart attack and even cancer. But the same oil can be recycled into environmentally safe biodiesel — a fuel for diesel engines that has been wholly or partly made from vegetable oil. And the food safety department is networking with agents who collect used oil and manufacturers for it.

“Some private oil manufacturers have volunteered to help us. We are in talks with petroleum companies,” a senior health department official said. The factories should have the capability to separate glycerine from fat or vegetable oil through a process called transesterification. “While we produce a safe fuel, we will be able to stop hazardous practice of oil reuse,” the official said.

To curb the reuse of cooking oil by food business operators, FSSAI issued a regulation earlier this year that mandates operators using more than 50 litres of oil to maintain a record of the amount used for frying, quantity discharged, date and mode of disposal and the details of the person who collected it. “This will help the authorities ensure there is no resale by big units to smaller vendors,” said TN food safety director and additional commissioner Dr K Vanaja. Food safety officials in Chennai and Madurai said manufacturers mix a special dye with palm oil to give it the odour and colour of cooking oil or gingelly oil.

“We also have information that some business units sell used cooking oil. The smaller units may be overusing oil,” said an official.

As per FSSAI guidelines, small food business units should not use the same oil for more than three times – although it is ideal to use it just once. Oil should be filtered frequently to remove food particles and it should be disposed when blue-grey smoke appears.

No food business unit can dispose oil into drains. “It has to be handed over to collection agents, just like how hospitals dispose bio-medical waste,” Vanaja said.