FDA, Rewari firm to convert used cooking oil to biofuel
57 dealers across state
The FDA has identified 57 dealers across the state, who are using more than 50 litres of cooking oil every day which included seven in Gurugram and Palwal, six in Faridabad, five in Panipat, four each in Sonipat, Kaithal and Rewari and all the outlets of McDonalds and Burger King
Bhartesh Singh Thakur
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 19
To save people from reusing cooking oil during frying, the Haryana’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Department has started a Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO) scheme to convert it into bio-diesel.
The department has tied up with a Rewari-based firm, BioD Energy India Private Limited, for collecting used cooking oil from sweet shops owners, who sell samosas, bread pakoras and other fried food items, and those who make namkeen.
The FDA has identified 57 dealers across the state, who are using more than 50 litres of cooking oil every day which included seven in Gurugram and Palwal, six in Faridabad, five in Panipat, four each in Sonipat, Kaithal and Rewari and all the outlets of McDonalds and Burger King.
The Rewari firm collects used cooking oil from the dealers every day. In total, the FSSAI has identified 11 such bio-diesel manufacturers across the country and Rewari firm is one of them.
“Cooking oil shouldn’t be used more than twice or thrice for frying as it breaks down into Trans Polar Compounds (TPC). Other indicators are forming of tough foam or oil becomes dark and murky or the consistency of oil changes,” said DK Sharma, Joint Commissioner (Food), FDA, Haryana.
During frying, several properties of oil are altered. The toxicity of total polar compounds (TPC) is associated with several diseases such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and liver diseases. “Besides heart-related diseases, used cooking oil can cause,” said Manisha Arora, senior dietitian, Government Multi Speciality Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, Chandigarh.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority (FSSAI) has fixed a limit for total polar compounds at 25 per cent beyond which vegetable oil shall not be used.
With RUCO, state’s FDA is monitoring the disposal of used cooking oil which is mandatory for 57 identified dealers. Another way of disposing of used cooking oil is selling it for industrial use like soap manufacturing. But, it finds its way from big shops to small or road side food vendors or poor households at a cheaper rate.
“The list of 57 dealers is a preliminary step. We will extend the scheme to those food business operators (FBOs) who are using up to 25 litre or 10 litre or even up to 2 litre of oil every day,” said Sharma.
