Open Letter to Hon'ble Prime Minister
Please save Farmers & Consumers from Edible oil adulteration mafia
Most of the Mustard oil is adulterated with toxic oils. Sale of mustard oil is two times higher than the total production in India. Save farmers and consumers of India from harmful adulteration of toxic oils in raw vegetable oils.
The present FSSAI law and Agmark Standards to allow blending of raw vegetable oil in India. On one side this is hurting oilseed farmers of India very badly due to depression in oilseed prices and on the other hand the health of consumers by mixing toxic synthetic oils. The only benefit goes to manipulators doing a criminal act of blending cheap toxic oils into edible oils.
Sir, Your interventions with concerned ministers help in saving public health and farmers.
Why should raw vegetable oils not be allowed for blending?
Raw Mustard Oil is having Acid Value Standard as 6 which is ten times the standard laid down for refined edible vegetable oils. Given this fact, if a blended edible vegetable oil / multi-sourced edible vegetable oil is prepared using raw mustard oil as one of the constituents and refined edible oil as the other constituent, there is no mechanism available to confirm whether the refined edible oil blended with Raw Mustard Oil was meeting the standard of Acid Value i.e. 0.6. Taking advantage of this situation, the unscrupulous businessmen are indulging in manufacturing blended edible vegetable oil / multi-sourced edible vegetable oil using one constituent as Raw Mustard Oil and another constituent as semi-refined edible oil having Acid Value and some between 4 to 6 (popularly known as Deodorized oil (DO) made through partial refining of rice bran oil/palm oil/soybean oil suitable for adulteration) instead of the maximum standard of 0.6 laid down for refined edible vegetable oils.
Why is raw edible oil the preferred choice of food criminals for adulteration with cheap toxic oils?
Secondly, Raw Mustard Oil is a high coloured edible vegetable oil so it is prone to adulteration much more as compared to any other kind of edible oil. It is a matter of fact that a large number of vegetable oil refiners particularly rice bran oil/palm oil refiners have set up facilities in their units for converting the fatty acids produced in de-acidification / deodorization process during physical refining by reacting the same with glycerin which process gets the fatty acids converted into oil-rich in mono-glycerides and diglycerides commonly known as synthetic oil. The synthetic oil so produced is of high colour and the only way to sell this synthetic oil for edible purposes is through blending with raw mustard oil, as it is not possible to detect the mixing of such synthetic oil with the naked eye.
The consumption of said synthetic oil is highly harmful to human beings. As the synthetic oil produced by the above-referred process is rich in mono-glycerides (MAG) and diglycerides (DAG) and when deodorized before blending in raw mustard oil, it leads to the formation of very very high levels of glycidyl esters (GE) which is carcinogenic even at the PPM levels as per the recent scientific evidence. Europe has already set standards as maximum 1PPM of glycidyl esters in refined oils. Recently, Codex has also issued guidelines in this regard. The synthetic oil so produced and blended with raw mustard oil is having 1000 times more glycidyl esters content than the maximum 1PPM standard fixed by Europe.
Public health and oilseed farmers are the sufferers
Thus, the present provisions which allow the production of blended edible vegetable oil / multi-sourced edible vegetable oil using one of the constituents as raw mustard oil are giving a big opportunity of supplying cancer-causing synthetic oil to the consumers of the Country. The ban on the production of blended edible vegetable oil/multi-sourced edible vegetable oil using one of the constituents as raw mustard oil would close the opportunity of producing and supplying the highly harmful synthetic oil to consumers by unscrupulous elements. I, therefore, strongly support the enabling provisions being made by this notification to ban the production of blended edible vegetable oil/multi-sourced edible vegetable oil using one of the constituents as raw mustard oil.
The objections to the said ban being raised from some quarters that it will stand in the way of innovation are totally baseless and are motivated. One fails to understand as to how the ban on the use of only one type of vegetable oil that too only in its raw form would stand in the way of innovation. Criminals looking for excuses to continue their game of adulteration. So the objections raised against the draft notification are baseless and motivated and may please not be given weightage at all.
The recommendation to the authorities are as follows:
Ban the use of raw edible oils in blending with immediate effect. This is not required at all under any justification. This will create more demand for mustard and oilseeds in India. Farmers will get a better price and consumers will get pure edible oil.
Ensure label marking “Free from Oryzanol” to prevent adulteration by toxic oils and bad quality rice bran oil. The only exception should be rice bran oils and products made of rice bran only with clear label declarations.
Introduce a new standard as maximum 1PPM of glycidyl esters in all edible oils.
All blended oils must disclose fatty acid composition as a mandatory requirement on the labels so that their claims about health can be known to consumers and authorities can also check the quality of the oil offered to the consumers.
FSSAI must disclose the names of the companies and brands found adulterated every week. Due to non-disclosure of names consumers are forced by adulterated and unsafe food as they do not have any information from FSSAI about bad foods on the retail shelf. As the regulator, with this act, FSSAI is protecting criminals and hurting consumers.
I request the Consumer Protection Authority, Agmark and FSSAI and all concerned to have an open house to finalise the standards at the earliest. Any delay is putting millions of lives at stake due to toxic oil reaching their homes and vulnerable sections of society like pregnant women, infants, elder people all are getting toxic oils in their food. This must stop with immediate effect.
Sir, Your interventions with concerned ministers help in saving public health and farmers.
Please feel free to contact the undersigned, in case of any clarification or discussion is required at any point.
Sincerely Yours’
Vijay SARDANA
आपकी बात सौ पर्सेंट सही है
ReplyDeleteThere must be stringent control over any form of food adulteration.
ReplyDeleteWell said sir. One Point which I feel is more important - As mixing has been restricted in mustard oil the same policy could be applied to other oils too which could inculcate a cleaner edible oil Market. Though this step at present looks impractical as per the current industry norms but in the long run may lead to a more transparent, cleaner and healthier Market.
ReplyDelete