The Food Safety and Requirements Authority of India, or FSSAI, said that 2.42 percent of the 4,461 cooking oil samples it tested were non-compliant due to safety standards, while 24.2 percent failed to meet quality metrics, indicating likely adulteration of cooking oils in the market.
From August 25–27, 2020, the FSSAI performed a countrywide study on edible oils to analyse oil safety, quality, and misbranding in cooking oils available on the market. The survey’s goal was to analyse the “ground realities” of oil safety, quality, and misbranding, according to the food safety regulator’s results, which were shared with the media.
Following the poll, the regulator recommended that states and union territories step up enforcement efforts to avoid edible oil adulteration.
2.42 percent of the 4,461 samples tested, including branded and loose oils, were non-compliant owing to safety factors such as the presence of aflatoxins, pesticide residues, and heavy metals at levels greater than those authorised by the Food Safety and Standards Regulations (FSSR). Meanwhile, 24.2 percent of the samples, or 1,080, did not meet key quality standards.The presence of hydrocyanic acid was detected in the samples, as well as a failure to achieve the necessary limits of refractive index, butyro refractometer, or BR reading—which analyses the purity of foods such as oils and fats, fatty acid profile, iodine value, and so on.
“Noncompliance with quality parameters shows that the oil has been adulterated or blended with other oils or components.” Other quality non-compliances discovered were failures to fulfil shelf-life criteria (acid value, presence of moisture content, rancidity, peroxide value, etc.) and prescribed additive standards—dimethylpolysiloxane as well as tertiary butylhydroquinone, for example, “it said.
In the category of label misbranding, 572 samples, or 12.8 percent, were found to be non-compliant with fortification claims such as the presence of Vitamin A and Vitamin D. Some oil samples did not meet FSSAI labelling criteria.
Mustard oil, coconut oil, palm oil, blended oil, cottonseed oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, groundnut oil, canola oil, rice bran oil, sesame oil, maize oil, flaxseed oil, and any other non-listed oils were among the cooking oil samples. Food safety officers from various states and union territories gathered these from 587 districts across the country and four metros. These samples were then forwarded to several FSSAI-accredited labs to be examined for safety, quality, and misbranding characteristics in accordance with the current FSSR.
According to FSSAI, a conference with stakeholders has been scheduled for September 9, 2021, to discuss the survey’s important results. According to the report, all states and union territories have been urged to step up their enforcement efforts to avoid oil adulteration.
It said that “it is being recommended that good agricultural practises and safe handling or processing methods be integrated into their efforts to eradicate the problem of pollutants through the implementation of good agricultural practises and safe handling or processing procedures.”