27,500 litres of loose edible oil seized by food regulator during nationwide inspection

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 17

The national food regulator through state agencies seized 27,500 litres of loose edible oil in nationwide inspections held over a fortnight to check adulteration of edible oils.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India today said it had concluded the nation-wide campaign against adulteration in edible oils (single oil as a constituent), trans-fatty acids and sale of multi-source edible oils without proper labelling. This massive surveillance drive was carried out between August 1 and 14 across the country with a total of 4845 surveillance samples of vegetable oils, multi-source edible oils, Vanaspati, etc., across 35 states/ UTs.

The Commissioners of Food Safety in all states/UTs were directed to lift surveillance samples of these products in a staggered manner from the markets so that the sample base is wider and representative of all food business operators (FBOs) and brands being sold therein.

During this fortnightly campaign, all states and UT Food Safety Departments carried out intensive surveillance to track down heavily upon the delinquent FBOs who may be found selling adulterated edible oils or loose edible oils.

“Further, as a specific focus of the campaign to check sale of loose oil in the country, a huge quality of loose edible oil – more than 27,500 liters has been seized across the country on the spot during the course of inspection.

The samples have now been sent to accredited food testing laboratories for swift analysis,” the food regulator said.

The results are expected in the next few days and any suspected case of adulteration shall be followed by immediate drawing of regulatory samples to take legal action against such FBOs as per the provisions of FSS Act, 2006, the regulator added.