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Choice of oils for your kitchen
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A wide choice of cooking oils is available in the market today. PRATIMA ASHER makes a reality check
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WHAT A choice of oils faces the customer at the local supermarkets! They are there in cans and tins of various sizes with attractive labels and in multihued pouches that advertise their goodness. They are advertised as being healthy, as providing the perfect flavour, as being deodorized, but with all its goodness still intact and so on. Faced with this varied choice of different brands and different kinds of even the same oil such as Kerala's favourite coconut oil, one is surprised to discover that what is available on the shelves represents only a fraction of the variety of oils which are used as a cooking medium here.
The different types of edible oils available generally are, cotton seed oil, mahua oil, soyabean oil, maize oil, rice bran oil, rapeseed oil, olive oil, poppy seed oil, sunflower seed oil, til or gingely oil obtained from black, brown white or mixed sesame seeds, niger seed oil, almond oil, watermelon seed oil, mustard oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed grown abroad oil, palm oil, palmolien, palm kernal oil, blended vegetable oil and of course, vanaspati. The different oils can be raw or treated to chemical processes, or refined.
Vanaspati, a popular cooking medium is a term, which refers to any edible vegetable oil or oils, which have been subjected to a process of hydrogenation. It can be made of groundnut or sesame oil or of mixtures of harmless oils allowed by the government for the purpose. Very strict rules govern the manufacture of vanaspati. It cannot contain any colour or matter harmful to health and this has to be authorised by the government. It cannot in any way have a flavour, which is similar to ghee. Considering that in its early days, vanaspati was used to adulterate ghee or was mixed with it, this helps to distinguish it totally from ghee, and ensure the purity of both.
Besides vanaspati, blended oils are also available. These are generally a proportionate mixture of any two edible oils. Marketed as and known mainly through their brand names and as healthier alternatives these oils often highlight their nutritional content and their superiority over traditional cooking oils in their natural forms. These oils are generally refined and deodorised.
In addition to these oils, edible vegetable fats are also available and are widely used. Common edible fats include cocoa butter, refined salseed fat, kokum fat, mango kernal fat, dhupa fat and phulwara fat.
Many laboratories exist in Kochi where different oils can be tested for purity, staying power, etc. Natural coconut oil, for instance, cannot be stored for long as its acidity increases. Other edible oils are storable for longer periods. There are not only private and government laboratories in Kochi where the chemist tests samples sent to them for gradation and other purposes but they can also conduct random spot tests on available stocks in the market. At the laboratory run by the Kochi Oil Merchant's Association, a list of tests, which are generally conducted, is available. Oils are tested for colour, moisture, sediment, refractive index at a specified temperature, acid value percentage, specific gravity, iodine value, saponification value, unsaponifiable matter and Polenske value. Sometimes adulteration is so clever that it is difficult to detect say officials here, especially when oil with similar physical properties is used as an adulterant.
Container specifications are also determined by well-defined rules. Both metal and plastic containers have to conform to specific standards. In the case of aluminium and plastic containers ISI standards are applied. Edible oils are generally available in packing of 50 gms, 100 gms, 200 gms, 500 gms, 1 kg, 2 kg and 5 kg and thereafter in multiples of 5 kg. Blended oils cannot be sold loose and are available in only in packages that are already sealed.
It is still possible to buy your cooking oil from your nearby grocer. A quantity that you wish and in a container you take to the shop from your home. Sometimes it is available from a small home run oil mill and you wait your turn while the miller extracts it for you fresh from his machine. But then for how long?
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
Visakhapatnam
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