After reports on loose sale of oil emerged, food safety officials have begun streamlining manufacture and sales of oil used for lighting. While oil for lighting should not be made where edible oil is manufactured, many units still violate the rule, officials said.
It is difficult to differentiate between the two varieties by the way it is packed which, the officials say, is done intentionally to make a killing. While the packing is similar to edible oil with misleading pictures, often a mention is made in the packet that it is meant for only lighting.
“This is written in English which is a deliberate to mislead people,” designated officer for food safety, Madurai district Dr M Somasundaram said.
To end the illegal practice, the officials have introduced a common colour to differentiate lighting oil from cooking oil. Only violet colour should be used on packing with a wording not less than 10 mm height mentioning that the oil is not meant for cooking.
FSSAI has recently implemented Blissful Hygienic Offering to God (BHOG) to ensures a list of pooja items used in temple are edible, as the products go into ‘abishekam’ and people consume it after the pooja. The list of items includes lighting oil, honey, sucrose syrup, camphor, incense sticks, fragrance oil, kunkum, ghee and holy ash.
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