74 coconut oil brands banned

Thiruvananthapuram: The food safety department has banned 74 brands of coconut oil after they were found to be adulterated. Food safety commissioner Anand Singh issued the order after tests proved that the collected samples were of sub-standard quality.
Earlier in May, the department had banned 45 brands of coconut oil and 51 brands in June. With the banning of 74 new brands, the total number of coconut oil brands banned this year will touch 170.

Some of the banned brands are StS Kera Premium Gold (Jithu Oil Mills), StS Kerala 3 in 1 (Jithu oil mills), StS Parimritham (Jithu Oil Mills), Kera Grace (Sri Murugan Traders), KKD Parishudam (Parisudhan Oils), Brilliant Grade One (AJ & Sons), K S Kerasugandhi (Indian Agencies), Kera Proudy (Bej Traders), Kera Priyam (Bej Traders), Golden Drops (Bej Traders), Kairali Drops Live (Bej Traders), Kerala Cook (Bej Traders), Kera Hira (Bej Traders), Nalikera (St Mary’s Oil Traders), Kera Swadisht (Liya trading company), Kitchen Tasty (Kairaly Oil mills), Kera Sulabha (Pulary Coconut Oil), Kera farm (V V Traders).

Food safety officials said that the products were banned for using poor sub-standard oils such as palm oil. Nearly half of the banned brands have used the name of Kera, a product of government-owned KeraFed. “By adding a name to Kera, they are trying to make consumers believe that this was the original Kera,” said a food safety official.

Several companies owned more than one banned coconut oil brand, which showed that the companies tried to avoid ban by manufacturing products using various licences and marketing them in different names.

For example, Afia coconut oil mill in G Puram distributed the products Kera Classic, Kera Bharath, Kera Queen and Kera Proud under various food safety licenses. Sreekrishnapuram-based ABH Trading Company sold Malabar Rich, SGS Kera Day and SGS Kera Soubhagya. All these products were banned.

Food safety officials said that they were planning to take strict action against repeated violators. tnn