Vigilance raids fail to check adulteration of cooking oil

​Nalgonda: In spite of raids on oil mills and sellers of adulterated edible oil by vigilance and enforcement officials, there is no let up in the adulteration trade in Nalgonda, Suryapet and Yadadri-Bhongir districts with traders banking purely on profit considerations. Consequently, public health is going up for a toss.

Pure groundnut oil costs at least Rs 150 a kg. However, the traders, who find it less remunerative, in the open market they sell the groundnut oil at Rs 110 adulterating it with oils like rice bran oil, palm fruit oil and cottonseed oil to increase their profitability. Prices of rice bran oil and that of cotton seed oil come for a cheaper rate.

According to a resident of Nalgonda, consumers prefer groundnut oil to other oils and also prefer to purchase them from oil mills. Cashing in on the consumer behaviour pattern, the traders adulterate groundnut and sunflower oils at the mills itself.

Alternatively, adulterated oil in attractive tins and packing are flooding the markets in Miryalaguda, Tirumalagiri and Suryapet areas from Kakinada. The imported adulterated oil is supplied to markets in Khammam and Warangal from these places.

According to a prominent doctor from the town Matru Naik, using adulterated oil in daily cooking could have adverse impact on health.

According to Charamandaraju of Vigilance and Enforcement department and Srinivasulu, a civil supplies official, raids were conducted on oil mills at Alair, Halia, Nalgonda and Miryalguda and identified stocks of adulterated oils and oil samples were sent to labs to identify the oils used to adulterate the groundnut and sunflower oil.

The people of the district demand deterrent action against greedy traders and prevent the adulterated oils from other states flooding the market.