12/05/2012 (Weekly Blitz) - Edible oil sellers in Bangladesh are largely cheating the customers by selling used Palm Oil as refined Soya Bean oil, which are imported from countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Though used palm oil in harmful to human health, the racket of unscrupulous importers and bottlers of edible oil in Bangladesh are following the wrong practice of importing used palm oil as well as GMO palm oil in Bangladesh and selling it in the name of refined soya bean oil. Sources at Chittagong sea port customs told Weekly Blitz that during past 3 years, the total import volume of refined soya bean oil was only 91,000 metric tons, while import of palm oil, mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia was above 3 million tons. Bangladesh annually consumes approximately 2.4 million tons of edible oil, while more than sixty percent of the total requirement is imported from abroad.

When Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute [BSTI] was asked as to how the sellers and bottlers of edible oil in Bangladesh are allowed to sell palm oil in the name of refined soya bean oil, it declined to make any comments. It is learnt from numerous sources that a racket of unscrupulous traders manager the officials and experts of BSTI through heavy bribes, thus ensuring the uninterrupted selling of falsely declared edible oil in the local market. It is also learnt that, Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited, an enterprise of Malaysian Palm Oil Council sells few brands of "soya bean" oil in Bangladesh, such as Rupchanda, Meizan etc, which are in fact used cooking oil or palm oil in most cases. It may be mentioned here that, Malaysia mainly exports Palm Oil to the world market, while Bangladesh Edible Oil Limited has also been importing the same product for years. It is interesting to note that while the company is importing palm oil, how it is being able selling "refined soya bean oil" to Bangladeshi consumers.

Palm oil hazardous to human health:
Palm oil is produced in tropical countries like Indonesia from a particular palm that makes big oily fruits that are pressed for the oil within. The oil is high in saturated fats just like bacon, cheddar cheese or cocoanut.

Palm oil contains five different saturated fats. Saturated fats will raise your blood cholesterol levels and can lead to heart disease. All oils have some saturated fat in them but palm oil is very high in saturated fat relative to corn, soy or olive oil.

If you have any concerns about heart health or about the health of your arteries, you should not be eating any palm oil. And, its easy to avoid if you chose better quality foods and avoid the highly processed foods found in run of the mill grocery stores. Find a natural food store near you and shop for cookies etc there.

Palm oil has become very popular among food processors because of the recent backlash against "trans fats" which are hydrogenated oils that pose a serious health threat in terms of heart disease, stroke and other circulation diseases. Palm oil replaced those trans fats in processed foods because it will remain solid at room temperature and not leach out of products. Unfortunately palm oil poses the same health risks as trans fats.

Palms for oil production are grown in countries Malaysia, Columbia, Indonesia, and Ghana. These are mostly poor tropical countries where many long standing cultures live off the land. Corporations that want to plant palms for oil have intruded on native lands, cut down tens of thousands of acres of native forests and planted monocultures of palms.

Cutting down native forests results in loss of native plants and animals and releases large amounts of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere, worsening climate change. Animals like the orangutan have been nearly exterminated by palm oil production.

Palm oil is high in saturated fat and low in polyunsaturated fat. Biomedical research indicates that the consumption of palm oil increases the risk of heart disease.

The National Heart Foundation of Australia's View on Palm Oil:

The Heart Foundation does not recommend using palm oil as it made up of over 50 percent saturated fat. A position statement from the Heart Foundation's National Nutrition and Metabolism Advisory Committee says;

"The following recommendations are primarily based on the relationship between dietary fat intake and well-established clinical endpoints for Cardio-vascular Disease [CVD]. These include coronary heart disease [CHD] events [non-fatal myocardial infarction [MI], death from CHD and stroke. These recommendations are based on evidence and current Australian dietary intakes."