14/11/2011 (Fiji Times) - People are being urged to be vigilant when buying cooking oil and to double check the quality of what they buy.

And they have also been urged to buy quality cooking oil because cheap oils are high in saturated fat that contribute heavily to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The request was made by the Consumer Council chief executive Premila Kumar this past week.

Ms Kumar said consumers should be extra careful when buying refill cooking oil from supermarkets.

"The cooking oil you are getting refilled may be a mixture of different types of oil and not the particular cooking oil you think you are buying," she said.

"The council has been alerted of this unscrupulous practice by some supermarkets that are mixing palm oil with soya bean oils for refills. The adulterated oil is either sold as soya bean oil or vegetable oil."