Implementing its January circular, which imposed restrictions on the handling of reused cooking oil, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has directed some of the food business operators (FBO) in Coimbatore to keep a registry of their daily use and disposal.
According to FSSAI officials, the new rule will apply to FBOs including restaurants and manufacturers of snacks and deep fried items that consume 50 litres or above of cooking oil for frying every day.
FSSAI Designated Officer in Coimbatore B. Vijayalalithambigai told The Hindu that some of the big restaurants and a few other FBOs, whose consumption of edible oil for frying is 50 litre and above, had been asked to maintain the registry.
“The registry should have details including the name of the edible oil used for cooking, the volume of oil used for frying and the volume of oil discarded at the end of a day,” she said.
The circular that came into effect from March says that “repeated frying of oils leads to changes in physiochemical, nutritional and sensory properties of cooking oil”.
During frying, Total Polar Compounds (TPC), a benchmark for measuring the degradation of the oil, are formed in the oil which have adverse effects on health.
As per the Food Safety and Standards (Licensing and Registration) First Amendment Regulation 2017, the oil is not suitable for use if TPC is above 25 %. This will restrict FBOs from using same cooking oil for frying more than three times.
The circular also says that denatured oil should not be topped with fresh oil.
There has been allegations that used cooking oil generated by bigger restaurants and other FBOs were sold at cheaper rates to roadside eateries and small operators for further use as frying oil and for cooking. With the new regulation coming into effect, the oil generated should only be disposed to an agency authorised by FSSAI.
Dr. Vijayalalithambigai said that food safety officers had created awareness among operators of roadside eateries and small-scale restaurants on the ill effects of using denatured oil.
Following the new restriction, a Bengaluru-based agency has started collecting the discarded cooking oil for the manufacture of biofuel. The discarded oil can also be used by the civic body to be used in fogging machine for mosquito control.