Madurai: The food safety officials from Madurai district will check trans-fat content in cooking oil sold in the city and rural areas by testing their quality. Officials are planning to take 50 samples from various places and check them in National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) certified laboratory, based on the instruction from higher officials. This decision came following the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI)’s initiative of bringing down trans-fat in food items to 2% from its current 5% in a few years.
Designated officer for food safety, Madurai district, Dr M Somasundaram told TOI that they will start lifting oil samples to be given to lab for testing in a couple of days. Appropriate action will be taken based on the test results, he said. We were told to work in the area by higher officials in a meeting held in Chennai on Monday, he said.
An official said that trans-fat is formed during hydrogenation of vegetable oil and other processes such as heating of oil at high temperature. Trans-fats are considered to be the worst type of fats one can consume. A diet-laden with trans-fat increases the risk of heart diseases and decreases good cholesterol in the human body, official said.
He added that while trans-fat content is already limited to 5%, a target has been fixed by FSSAI to further reduce it to 3% by 2021 and 2% by 2022. The FSSAI has already introduced a logo, which can be used by food business operators like hotels on voluntary basis, if their food content did not have trans-fat more than 0.2g per 100 gram.
Simultaneously, the food safety officials will also take measures to curb the sales of cooking oil in loose.
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