Govt ill-equipped to test cooking oil

KATHMANDU, FEB 02 -The government is not in a position to assure the quality of cooking oil due to the lack of technology to determine the quantity of different components of the oil. This has posed a serious risk to the public health, consumer rights activists said.

This shortcoming of the government came into light after the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control wrote to another market inspection body—the Department of Commerce and Supply Management— informing that it does not have the technology to confirm whether a sample of cooking oil has a certain quantity of nutrition and other components as mentioned in the label.

In response to the Commerce Department’s request to confirm the status of nutritional facts of a sample of imported Meizen Sunflower Seed Oil, the Food Technology Department expressed its inability to conduct the test. The Commerce Department had collected the sample from Gyan Enterprises based in Jadibudi, Kathmandu, one and half months ago.

The Commerce Department had asked to the Food Technology Department to test whether the oil had no cholesterol as claimed and whether the sample contained the exact quantity of fat, sodium, saturates, monounsaturates and polyunsaturates as claimed.

Talking to the Post, officials and food analysts at the Food Technology Department said they can test only six parameters set by the government that confirms whether a sunflower oil is consumable. The six parameters are refractive index, iodine value, saponification value, unsaponifiable matter, acid value and peroxide value.

“We don’t have the facility to test nutritional components in liquid food items like cooking oil,” said a food analyst at the Food Technology Department.

Pramod Koirala, spokesperson for the Food Technology Department, also said testing all the components is not possible due to the lack of technology and resources. This has forced the Commerce Department to abandon the market monitoring of cooking oil, focusing on nutritional components.

“Not only the edible oil, the government also lacks the technology to test the quality of cosmetic goods,” said Hari Narayan Belbase, director at the Commerce Department. “We have received many complaints against cosmetic products too.”

Madhav Timalsina, a consumer rights activist, said the government’s failure to maintain a sound lab testing facility has given space for traders selling substandard goods in the market.

http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/02/02/money/govt-ill-equipped-to-test-cooking-oil/258858.html