Inspections to check reuse of cooking oil by eateries

Complaints that many food joints are reheating oil multiple times

The Food Safety department will conduct special inspections at food business outlets to see if cooking oil is being reused.

Reheating used oil for further cooking is not healthy. Reheating the oil several times releases carcinogens which can be extremely harmful to human health. There are complaints that many restaurants are reheating used oil multiple times and this cannot be allowed, a statement issued by Health Minister Veena George on Friday said.

Oxidative reactions

The repeated use of oil at high temperatures results in several oxidative and thermal degradation reactions and the release of compounds with high molecular weight and polarity. By checking the total polar compounds (TPC), quality changes in cooking oil can be determined. TPC monitoring is a reliable method for checking the quality of cooking oil and the Food Safety wing will adopt the method during its inspections, the statement said.

Edible oil which does not meet quality should not be sold or used for cooking. The Food Safety wing will tighten inspections to find adulteration in cooking oil.

Stale meat, fish seized

The raids by the department are continuing and in the past 25 days, 4,290 checks have been conducted. Action has been taken against 331 shops which did not possess the mandatory FSSAI registration or licence while 1,417 shops have been issued notices for not maintaining safety standards. About 412 kg of meat that was unsafe for human consumption was seized and destroyed. As part of Operation Matsya, 7,229 kg of stale fish was seized and destroyed. The inspections will continue in the coming days.