Ahmedabad: Are you consuming adulterated oil?

Groundnut oil has been found to be adulterated in the state.

Over 140 samples of the stuff from different brands were found adulterated with palm oil. In the last three months, Food and Drugs Control Administration (FDCA), a state government arm, tested more than 900 samples of branded groundnut oil to check whether they were adulterated.

“We found 15.5% of the cases to be adulterated. Imported palm oil is almost 50% cheaper than groundnut oil. And, it is very difficult for a customer to check whether groundnut oil is adulterated. Hence, these edible oil companies have been indulging in adulteration,” said FDCA commissioner HG Koshia.

“The average price of groundnut oil is about Rs100 per litre while that of palm oil is less than Rs60 per litre. And, since palm oil has no colour, it can be easily mixed with groundnut oil. Moreover, companies have been cheating customers due to sheer greed,” said the commissioner.

According to Koshia, there is nothing wrong in consuming either palm oil or adulterated palm oil. “In that case, they should market their product as a mixture of palm oil and groundnut oil. If they adulterate groundnut oil and sell it at a higher price, it amounts to cheating,” he said.

Following a number of complaints of adulteration, FDCA launched a special drive. “Last three months is the real season during which the edible oil companies gather raw material and start crushing groundnut seeds to manufacture the oil. Because of this reason, we started a special drive across all districts of the state,” said Koshia.

For this, FDCA assigned the job of search to over 200 food and safety workers. “We have tried to take the sample of each and every brand sold in Gujarat,” he said, but did not name the brands selling adulterated groundnut oil.