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Showing posts from February, 2024

Dr Anbarasu Mohanraj's Dairy : Perils of Re-use of Cooking Oil

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Is your Samosa/Bajji from your favourite shop, heart healthy. Imagine an Indian street food without oil. It’s impossible. You get your favourite samosa or Bajji in the shop next to your office at Rs 10/-. How on earth is it possible when you know how costly cooking oil is when your buy it for your house-hold use? Indians have no clue of what we eat. Food Safely and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) recommends re-heating of cooking oil not more than 4 times or the Total Polar Compound reaches not more than 25. Cooking vegetable oil has a lower smoke point. Government figures quote that 60% of cooking oil in food industry is re-cycled. That means, used cooking oil from branded hotels and outlets get re-routed to street shops at a throw away price. The oil which is sold at dirt price to the street vendors has been already boiled multiple times in the branded outlet. The street vendor who buys it, is going to boil it an umpteen times more. In reality 80% of cooking oil by the street vend