FDA asks eateries to stop reheating cooking oil

Nitish Sharma

Tribune News Service

Ambala, March 31

Following the guidelines of the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has started asking restaurant and dhaba owners and fast food manufacturers to stop reheating cooking oil and also to maintain a stock register of used and discarded cooking oil.

The oil will be collected by the FSSAI through authorised agencies and the sellers will also be given some incentive. However, it is not clear how much incentive will be given to the sellers.

Subhash Chander, Food and Safety Officer, Ambala, said: “Repurpose Used Cooking Oil is an ecosystem that will enable the collection and conversion of used cooking oil into biodiesel. Following the directions of the FSSAI, restaurant, dhaba operators and fast food manufacturers are being asked not to reheat the cooking oil and maintain the stock register. A pro forma is being provided to manufacturers and they have been asked to adhere to the directions.”

“Meetings have been held with fast food manufacturers and dhaba owners and directions under Section 16 (5) of the Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 regarding disposal and collection of used cooking oil have been given. Not only fast food manufacturers but also people at their houses must also avoid reheating cooking oil,” he said.

“Use of cooking oil for repeated frying leads to the formation of total polar compounds making it unfit for human consumption and can lead to several diseases. The FSSAI has prescribed a limit for Total Polar Compounds (TPC) to be maximum 25 per cent, beyond which the cooking oil is not suitable for human consumption,” the Food and Safety Officer said.

Though it implements on the manufactures using at least 50 litre of oil in a day, small-time manufacturers are being asked to jointly collect the oil.

Gagandeep Singh, a dhaba operator, said: “We already don’t reheat the cooking oil as a limited quantity of oil is used. Earlier fast food manufacturers used to purchase tin oil cans and put the used oil back into the tin. But now, the manufacturers prefer small packing and use them as per their need.”