MARKET DEVELOPMENT
PFA to Check Used Edible Oil Recycling
PFA to Check Used Edible Oil Recycling
15/03/2017 (Dawn) - The Punjab Food Authority has decided to stop recycling of the used edible oil and its sale in the province after the Chief Justice of Pakistan put the commodity within its (PFA) purview.
Since the authority is already looking into affairs related to supply and use of edible oil in the province, officials say the CJP in a recent hearing (March 10) in Islamabad directed it to make efforts for the provision of quality oil by stopping the sale of the used oil by the restaurants to vendors, its recycling and further sale, which is causing cancer and other diseases.
“A couple of days back, the CJP had summoned us and I being the PFA head appeared before him. During the hearing, the CJP put the edible oil within the purview of PFA,” PFA Director General Noorul Amin Mengal told Dawn on Sunday.
Following the court direction, the authority also plans to hold on Monday a meeting with the owners of local and international food chains, restaurants, soap factories and the biodiesel plants in private sector and those working in the public sector so as to find out the ways to check this menace.
Plans to divert sale to biodiesel plants
“After frying for two times or so, restaurants store the used oil for a couple of hours. Later they sell it to vendors, who supply the same for recycling and it is sold to small eateries and roadside vendors,” the DG says.
Mengal says there are also reports of sale of recycled used oil for recycling again. Or sometimes it is disposed of in sewer lines, causing various environmental issues.
Asked about the sale of used oil to biodiesel plants, he says actually these are the places where the used oil should be sold. Through various processes, the used oil can be converted into biodiesel which is called green oil for usage in vehicles in the world, including the UK. And if the used edible oil is sold to such plants alone for biodiesel production, its recycling and further use for human consumption can be avoided. Similarly, soap makers also utilise [used] edible oil. “That is why we have called owners of restaurants and soap units.”
According to an expert, the recycled edible oil is unfit for human consumption as it causes various diseases, including stomach cancer.
“In our factory near (Sharaqpur, Sheikhupura), we use some quantity of used edible oil in making biodiesel and export it to the UK and the Netherlands. The manufacturing of biodiesel through used edible oil is considered renewable energy and is a practice in the developed countries. Since a huge quantity of such oil in Pakistan is recycled for reuse in cooking, we receive a meagre quantity from vendors. If we get it in bulk, we may increase our diesel production,” Ali Shah, owner of the plant, says.
He says his company employing 250 chemical engineers has plans to supply biodiesel to Pakistani market in the near future.
Since the authority is already looking into affairs related to supply and use of edible oil in the province, officials say the CJP in a recent hearing (March 10) in Islamabad directed it to make efforts for the provision of quality oil by stopping the sale of the used oil by the restaurants to vendors, its recycling and further sale, which is causing cancer and other diseases.
“A couple of days back, the CJP had summoned us and I being the PFA head appeared before him. During the hearing, the CJP put the edible oil within the purview of PFA,” PFA Director General Noorul Amin Mengal told Dawn on Sunday.
Following the court direction, the authority also plans to hold on Monday a meeting with the owners of local and international food chains, restaurants, soap factories and the biodiesel plants in private sector and those working in the public sector so as to find out the ways to check this menace.
Plans to divert sale to biodiesel plants
“After frying for two times or so, restaurants store the used oil for a couple of hours. Later they sell it to vendors, who supply the same for recycling and it is sold to small eateries and roadside vendors,” the DG says.
Mengal says there are also reports of sale of recycled used oil for recycling again. Or sometimes it is disposed of in sewer lines, causing various environmental issues.
Asked about the sale of used oil to biodiesel plants, he says actually these are the places where the used oil should be sold. Through various processes, the used oil can be converted into biodiesel which is called green oil for usage in vehicles in the world, including the UK. And if the used edible oil is sold to such plants alone for biodiesel production, its recycling and further use for human consumption can be avoided. Similarly, soap makers also utilise [used] edible oil. “That is why we have called owners of restaurants and soap units.”
According to an expert, the recycled edible oil is unfit for human consumption as it causes various diseases, including stomach cancer.
“In our factory near (Sharaqpur, Sheikhupura), we use some quantity of used edible oil in making biodiesel and export it to the UK and the Netherlands. The manufacturing of biodiesel through used edible oil is considered renewable energy and is a practice in the developed countries. Since a huge quantity of such oil in Pakistan is recycled for reuse in cooking, we receive a meagre quantity from vendors. If we get it in bulk, we may increase our diesel production,” Ali Shah, owner of the plant, says.
He says his company employing 250 chemical engineers has plans to supply biodiesel to Pakistani market in the near future.