Aug 11, 2019
Adulteration: Officials take oil samples from shops
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.
State-run oil marketing companies to buy biodiesel made from used cooking oil
The scheme is being launched in 100 cities across the country.
Government pushes for green fuel as FSSAI order cracks down on re-using oil.
In a bid to encourage the biofuel sector, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday announced that the state-run oil marketing companies would procure the entire supply of biodiesel produced from used cooking oil for a three-year period.
The move, announced on World Biofuel Day, means that biodiesel plants using used cooking oil as their raw material will be assured that their entire production will be procured by the oil marketing companies to be blended with normal diesel. The scheme is being launched in 100 cities across the country.
To pay producers
Under the scheme, the OMCs — Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum — will pay biodiesel producers ₹51 per litre in the first year, ₹52.7 per litre in the second, and ₹54.5 per litre in the third year. The oil companies will also bear the cost of transportation and GST for the first year.
The Minister’s announcement comes just a day after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) has directed Food Safety Commissioners to ensure that Food Business Operators (FBOs), whose consumption of edible oils for frying is more than 50 litres per day, stop reusing the oil more than three times.
Mr. Pradhan also launched a ‘Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO)’ sticker and a phone app to enable the collection of used cooking oil. Restaurants and hotels interested in supplying used cooking oil can affix the sticker to show availability.
“Prime Minister has given a target to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to bring down import dependency of oil products by 2022, and this can be achieved by enhancing production, improving energy efficiency, promoting conservation and encouraging alternate fuels,” Mr. Pradhan said speaking at an event to launch World Biofuel Day 2019.
“The government is promoting the alternate sources of energy in a big way.”
He added that his Ministry was working on a four-pronged strategy by promoting ethanol, second-generation ethanol, compressed biogas and biodiesel.
“Ethanol blending in petrol has gone up from 1.5% to about 8% and is likely to touch 10% soon,” Mr Pradhan said. “The government is planning to allow production of ethanol from surplus foodgrains which now sometimes go waste and also entail expenditure on storage.”
“Biodiesel is low hanging fruit in the scheme of alternate source of energies, and abundant raw material is available for the purpose,” the Minister added. “It is a good waste-to-wealth concept.”
The National Policy on Biofuels 2018, released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set a blending target of 20% for ethanol in petrol and of 5% for biodiesel blending in diesel by 2030.
After extending the deadline twice for FBOs consuming more that 50 litres of oil a day for frying to strictly maintain the usage records and stop reusing the oil more than three times, an August 9 order from the FSSAI has directed Food Safety Commissioners to conduct inspections and ensure that the oil does not enter the food chain again. The order was issued by FSSAI Joint Director (Regulatory Compliance) Pushp Vanam.
The order says all FBOs should compulsorily dispose off their used cooking oil to authorised collection agencies or aggregators and lists eight biodiesel manufacturers enrolled with agency so far.
FSSAI Chief Executive Officer Pawan Kumar Agarwal told The Hindu on Saturday that the agency will soon come out with a mobile application for tracking and tracing used cooking oil.
“All FBOs whose consumption of edible oil for frying is more than 50 litres per day will now have to maintain records including date, name of the oil, quantity of oil taken for frying, quantity discarded at the end of the day, date and mode of disposal of the used oil and discarded oil collected by agency. This will be enabled through an app,” he said.
“When used multiple times, cooking oil becomes acidic and darkens in colour. This may alter the fatty acid composition of the oil. FSSAI will also ask cooking oil manufacturers to come out with colour charts (either on the product or in a booklet along with the product) that will help people to identify if the oil is fresh or re-used. A prominent oil manufacturer is already doing this and we plan to ask others also to follow the same concept,” Mr Agarwal added.
He said the directive was aimed at ensuring that reused cooking oil is neither directly used in food preparation nor re-enters the food chain. “We have done this to set in safety standards in the food industry. The August 9 Order is to make sure this rule is strictly enforced henceforth,” he said.
The order on prohibiting reuse of edible oil was initially issued on January 30, 2019, and was directed to be effective from March 1, 2019. Subsequently, another Order was issued on February 28 extending the deadline by three months.
Following the initial Order, food safety officials voiced the several challenges in enforcing it, especially in the absence of a strong ecosystem that can facilitate the registration of biodiesel manufacturers and collection aggregators.
Although Karnataka is the first State to have a Bio Energy Development Board and used cooking oil is being collected from big chain of restaurants by biondiesel manufacturing units, the main issue is regarding the registration of such units and empanellment of re-purposed used cooking oil (RUCO) collecting aggregators. Without empanellment, many aggregators are finding it difficult to collect used cooking oil from hotel chains. These challenges were discussed at a meeting of top officials from FSSAI in Bengaluru on March 1. Similar concerns were raised by other States.
Following this, FSSAI issued an Order on May 6 requiring bio diesel manufacturers to enrol with FSSAI for collection of used cooking oil from FBOs.
Cars to run on cooking oil? Govt works on new program for fuel
To reduce India's dependence on energy imports, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with the state-run fuel retailers (IOC, HPCL and BPCL), launched a programme to procure biodiesel made from used cooking oil (UCO) from 100 cities across the country.
This could encourage private entrepreneurs to set up Biodiesel plants and get remunerative price and assurance on complete offtake of production.
To reduce India's dependence on energy imports, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, along with the state-run fuel retailers (IOC, HPCL and BPCL), launched a programme to procure biodiesel made from used cooking oil (UCO) from 100 cities across the country. This will also help India meet its fuel demand in the near future.
On the Occasion of the World Biofuel Day today, Dharmendra Pradhan, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister, launched the programme that involves 3 Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) inviting Expression for Interest (EOI) from private entities for setting up plants to produce biodiesel from used cooking oil, processing plants and further utilising the existing potential of UCO-based biodiesel in India.
This could encourage private entrepreneurs to set up Biodiesel plants and get remunerative price and assurance on complete offtake of production.
As part of EOI, biodiesel would be procured by the OMCs at Rs 51 per litre, which would be increased to Rs 52.7 in the second year and Rs 54.5 per litre in the third year. Moreover, the oil companies will also bear the cost of transportation and GST for the first year.
"PM Modi has given a target to the ministry to bring down import dependency of oil products by 2022, and this can be achieved by enhancing production, improving energy efficiency, promoting conservation and encouraging alternate fuels", said Dharmendra Pradhan, adding the abundance of the raw material could turn this from 'good waste to wealth concept'.
Moreover, a sticker on Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) was released by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). The food joints, hotels and restaurants supplying UCO for producing biodiesel will affix this sticker on their premises.
Additionally, a mobile app, RUCO App, was also launched, which will enable stakeholders track all transactions and facilitate the UCO collection.
"Presently there is no established collection chain for UCO. Thus, there is a huge opportunity in the production of biodiesel from UCO," the Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas stated.
Pradhan said the government was promoting alternate sources of energy in a big way, and added that the Centre was working on a four-pronged strategy to promote ethanol, 2-G ethanol, compressed bio-gas and bio-diesel.
"The budget this year has underlined the transformation of Annadata to Urjadata," Pradhan added.
Indian eateries spice up food choices in Australia
Mouthwatering: The Australians have developed a taste for Indian delicacies such as butter chicken and roganjosh.
Monica Sharma
There was a time when the instant reaction of an Australian to the idea of having Indian food was “no way”; it was just too spicy for the palate. With the exponential increase in the number of Indian restaurants across Australia over the last two decades, the curiosity and mild adjustments to the recipes have made the food and curries hot favourites. It all started with the opening of Indian grocery stores, followed by eateries, restaurants and fast-food joints. Butter chicken and roganjosh soon became familiar names, and despite the difficulty in pronouncing these, the Australians developed a taste for the Indian delicacies. Chicken vindaloo, cheese naan, golgappas and samosas also caught the fancy of many.
Hailing from Jagraon, Kamal Sidhu, who came to Australia in 1995, recalls there were very few Indian restaurants in Sydney at that time but many more came up in the next 10 years. Sidhu landed a job at an Indian eatery and eventually bought an Indian restaurant in 2000, which he sold off later. He now runs an Indian restaurant, New Mantra, in Adelaide. “Indian cuisine was not much sought after and the dishes were prepared to taste mild. However, with the influx of students since 2005, the Indian population started growing and the number of eateries increased manifold,” he says.
Sidhu remembers it was not easy getting jobs in Australia back in 1995. A major problem for immigrants was the language barrier: the strong English accent of the natives made it difficult to get into customer dealing. But what restaurateurs like Sidhu had to really work on was quality control. The Australian hygiene standards are very strict and health inspectors regularly carry out checks. His restaurant, he confesses, got half a star out of the five stars marked for safety because of the low battery of the thermometer used to check the temperature of the meat. Cleanliness and hygiene have to be maintained at all times. Every fortnight floors are cleaned up with high-pressure water.
The failure to ensure clean and hygienic conditions, rusty pans, greasy drains and improper food storage have resulted in heavy penalties for the restaurants, including the ones specialising in Indian cuisine. They have been found falling short of complying with Food Act regulations.
An Indian restaurant in Perth was fined $25,000 for Food Act breaches in May this year. The restaurant was found lacking on different counts — unclean utensils, water leakage and filthy work conditions. Last year, another Indian restaurant in Perth was fined after pet food was found on the premises. Another Indian restaurant in Melbourne was fined $25,000 for not maintaining safe food practices. The utensils in the kitchen were oily and greased.
Khushi Mehra, a worker at an Indian restaurant, says they make all possible efforts to maintain cleanliness while cooking. “However, some of the recipes include deep frying and, as you know, a lot of spices are added to the gravy or curries. So, the cookware gets sticky,” she says.
Talking about the procedures, councillor Kim McAliney says that Wyndham City in Melbourne checks different food premises regularly and if the inspectors are not happy with any aspect, they work with the proprietors to achieve a positive resolution without the need for further action.
“If the restaurants do not comply with the council’s advice, the outlet is given a formal order and the council ensures the food safety issue is dealt with in a timely manner.”
City of Gosnells Chief Executive Officer Ian Cowie says the common issues encountered during routine inspections of all food premises relate to cleanliness, maintenance, food storage and handling. While there may be defaulters, there is a long list of successful Indian eateries in Australia, such as Cinnamon Club, Indian Temptations, Beyond India, Charminar, Cafe Chennai, Billu’s, to name a few.
Kids to be sensitised to food nutrition
Keeping kids’ health on mind, the Health Department is all set to create awareness among stakeholders under the guidelines of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to inculcate wholesome eating habits among children.
The department has already held a meeting with social and trade organisations to sensitise them to the health issues arising due to the increased use of junk and fast food. The next plan is to take the issue to the children by asking them to keep track of junk and fast food items they consume every day.
District Health Officer Dr Charanjit Singh said, “Food safety is core to the human health. Children, being the future, need to be taught about right choice of food and other aspects of good health.” He said they would include schools in the drive so that children could be made aware.
Dr Singh said nutrition in food is important but equally important is to learn the nutrition is not destroyed or affected by outside factors before the food is consumed. “Children need to know how bacteria, fungi, etc. can affect the food. They need to know about the need for cleanliness and hygiene. Most people would not have thought about it but jewellery, such as ring, worn by cooks can impact the food quality as it gathers dust and bacteria,” she said.
Dr Sandeep Aggarwal, a pediatrician, said, “The health issues arising out of increased use of junk food are frequently reported nowadays.” He said that by asking a child to keep a track of whatever he eats daily would let him know about the quantity of junk food he is having. “First we have to recognise the problem. Once the child knows that he is having more of junk, it will be easier to draw him to healthy diets as veggies and greens,” he added.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)