Recently, the Food and Drugs Administration ordered home-based food outlets to register themselves with FSSAI. One wonders whether the same is done in the right spirit of food safety or just to fill the coffers.
October 16 was World Food Day. Chandigarh celebrated this day by launching the FSSAI initiative “ RUCO -- Repurpose Used Cooking Oil. Continuous use of same cooking oil -- which means more profits -- release polar compounds during frying which are associated with liver and hypertension disease.
Goa is replete with food carts -- legal and illegal. Margao has one licence for 3 carts meaning it is big business. While the government calls only for FSSAI registration -- which means more income -- what about the used oil disposal?
Is this not the government’s responsibility? How does one take care of this? The RUCO initiative converts the oil to biodiesel. Used cooking oil falls under the ambit of the GSPCB.
The FDA must fix the number of times and the temperature at which oil can be used and monitor it.
