Packers: Cooking Oil In 1Kg Packs As Good As Any
17/12/2011 (The Star) - The Malaysian Palm Oil Packers Association has denied claims that cooking oil sold in 1kg packs are recycled, saying that they were fresh and of equal quality to oil sold in 2kg and 5kg bottles.
Its president Gulab Bibi Mydin Khan said it was not profitable to recycle used cooking oil.
“It is cheaper for manufacturers to buy subsidised oil and sell them in 1kg packets compared to buying used cooking oil,” she said.
Gulab Bibi said the price of used cooking oil was RM2 per kg currently compared to RM1.70 for subsidised oil.
“We do not see the rationale in buying used cooking oil and refining it for human consumption as it is more expensive to do this.”
Gulab Bibi was responding to a front page report in The Star which stated that 19 brands of cooking oil sold nationwide in 1kg packets were unfit for consumption due to repeated exposure to high temperatures.
The Malaysian Association of Standards Users, which pursued the study of the commodity with Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), believed that the re-packaged oil was meant to have been recycled into biodiesel for use in engines.
Manufacturers were believed to have bought the oil used in restaurants through middlemen and processed this for re-sale.
Gulab Bibi said: “We would like to make it known that branded cooking oil sold in 1kg packets are safe for human consumption as it the packaging is governed by specifications determined by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).”
She said the 1kg packet oils were subsidised by the Government to reduce the burden on consumers.
“It is unfair to keep referring to it as cheap oil.”
However, she said the association had sent samples of several brands of the 1kg packet oil to be tested.